Gaming and Wisconsin Indians

Wisconsin Indians are at the foot of the socio-economic strata. Indians, comprise only 0.5% of the entire population of the U.S. they being the smallest minority in the U.S, are still at the bottom of practically every economic disparity. As a means to alleviate their poverty, gaming came as a development and a consequence of sovereignty of Wisconsin Indians, acknowledged by the courts after decades of Indian activism and frequent episodes of robbery and genocides. The native nations were finally able to set their own rules and regulations to regulate their tribal members. Tribal casino success stems from this ability to captivate a non-Indian entertainment desire in areas where states prohibit it.

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According to the statistics on Economic Impact Of Indian Gaming Ў°Indian gaming has become the industry that tribal governments can use to overturn 150 years of federal neglect. As of February, 1997, the National Indian Gaming Commission reported there were 115 tribes with gaming class III operations and 164 tribe/state compacts in 24 states. Less than one-third of the tribes in the U.S. have gaming operations. Indian Gaming is only 5% of the entire Gaming Industry. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) mandates tribal governments, not individuals, can have gaming operations. Thus the entire proceeds of the industry go back to fund tribal government programs, just as state revenue funds state programs. States use lottery proceeds much the same way tribes use gaming proceeds. Indian gaming is providing a means to self-sufficiency for Tribal Nations, and is also creating jobs and economic activity in local non-Indian communities and states where tribal gaming operations are located. Over 120,000 direct jobs and 160,000 indirect jobs have been created nationwide. Gaming holds some hope for reducing poverty, but it is definitely not a treat as the limited and perhaps transitory success of gaming cannot quickly render null and void centuries of botched economics.

Indian casinos are present in large numbers and many are not even listed. According to the statistics, Ў°Indian gaming represents only about 5% of all gambling in the United States and only a third of tribes currently operate gaming facilities. About 40% of gambling revenues come from state lotteries and the remaining 55% is dominated by commercial entities in Nevada and New JerseyЎ± (Lawrence, 1995). These gaming zones offer jobs for tribal members, food and shelter for on-reservation members and a buy-back of bigger land bases. Wisconsin tribes operate 15 Class III gaming facilities with a total payroll of just over $68 million. For some 3,000 employees, their casino job is the family's sole source of income. If those same employees were placed on state unemployment compensation, it would cost the state more than $27 million. Procurement by tribal gaming employees of daily items support more than 900 indirect jobs, created by the increased sales that local businesses are surviving upon. 17 percent of the population that visits the casinos comes from out of state and an additional 53 percent come from outside the immediate casino area. This also leads to greater than before tourism generating nearly $18 million dollars in state income taxes per year along with a drop in welfare costs.

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The tribal governments, similar to any other state government, utilize profits that gaming generates for the purposes that include law enforcement, education, economic development, tribal courts and infrastructure improvement. The Indian nations are using gaming profits to fund social service programs, open hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and flower shops; to fund retirement programs for their tribal elders, scholarships, health care clinics, new roads, new sewer and water systems, adequate housing, chemical dependency treatment programs and dialysis clinics, among others. In Minnesota, roughly 37% of the tribal gaming employees had received state or federal welfare assistance prior to their employment and another 31% were drawing unemployment compensation. Daniel Tucker, chairman for the Sycuan band of Mission Indians, points out that Ў°Indian gaming not only reduces the burden on tax-funded social programs but it now increases available reservesЎ± (Lawrence, 1995).

Although gambling has created escalation in job opportunities and state revenues, a divergence of large amounts of spending to state and tribally sponsored gaming enterprises has had a negative effect on other commerce, specifically the restaurant,