The federal government in January rejected 22 applications for new off-reservation casinos. This was done solely in memos, and letters, not through a formal process. "We were shocked by the lack of due process involved," said Mark Van Norman, executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association.
But now the tribes are fighting back through the courts and through public opinion.
Indian casinos made more than $25.1 billion in gambling revenues in 2006, and tribes want to expand this fortune. Commercial casino revenues -- in Las Vegas, Reno and Atlantic City -- are only slightly higher, at $32.4 billion.
The St. Regis Mohawks in upstate New York is one of two tribes that sued the department, called the decision "racist and paternalistic."
"It's outrageous for us, as Mohawk people, to be told that we can't sustain our community relations," said Chief Lorraine White.
Male members of the tribe have traveled to faraway construction sites to support their families on the reservation. There is no difference, she argues, reasoning by analogy, in building a casino that will generate money for the tribes far from the reservation.
The other tribe, the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin, allege the department violated the due-process clause of the Constitution and acted arbitrarily.
But several groups, like existing casinos, don't support expanded Indian gambling.
Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage Inc., the largest casino operator, said the policy brought order to an unruly process that has approved dozens of off-reservation casinos in recent years.
"We've never ever had a problem with tribal gaming ... but we definitely take a position when tribes anywhere try to take land that's 300, 400, 500 miles away from their reservation and say, 'Oh, we want to do this there,' " he said.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne noted that 10 of the rejected applicants sought casinos 160 to 1,550 miles from their reservations. Several proposed casinos crossed state lines.
The 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act wasn't intended to create casinos and jobs for tribal members so far from the reservation, he said.
Three tribes have been approved in the past for long-distance casinos using a two-part determination that requires the approval of a state governor and the Interior secretary.
Twenty other Indian casinos have been created away from reservations using other exceptions in the act.
Tribes can also build any number of on-reservation casinos as long as a state agrees to a compact, which essentially is a tax on casino revenues.
Just 230 of the 562 Indian tribes in the United States are running 387 casinos.
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