2. MYTH: INDIAN GAMING
IS COMMERCIAL, FOR-PROFIT GAMING.
FACT: GAMING ON INDIAN
RESERVATIONS IS OPERATED BY TRIBES TO FUND GOVERNMENTAL PROGRAMS.
IGRA requires that all revenues from tribal
gaming operations be used solely for governmental or charitable
purposes. Much like State Government and the use of funds
from 40 state lotteries, Tribal Governments determine how
gaming proceeds are to be spent. In direct contrast to the
opulent expenditures on yachts and jets by commercial casino
operators such as Donald Trump, Indian tribes are using gaming
revenues to build houses, schools, roads and sewer and water
systems; to fund the health care and education of their people;
and to develop a strong, diverse economic base for the future.
3. MYTH: TRIBAL GAMING
IS AN UNREGULATED MAGNET FOR ORGANIZED CRIME.
FACT: INDIAN GAMING
IS MORE HEAVILY REGULATED AND MORE SECURE THAN COMMERCIAL
GAMING.
The tribes, as governments, are the first
to be vigilant in protecting the integrity of projects they
rely upon to feed, clothe, educate and employ their people.
Even before IGRA created a federal framework for regulating
certain forms of tribal gaming, tribes regulated reservation
gaming activities by exercising their inherent police powers
and, when necessary, taking violators to court. Many Tribes
have had existing Law Enforcement & Court Systems for
years. In compacts negotiated between State Governments and
Tribal Governments, such issues as law enforcement and security
measures are considered. States like Arizona, for example,
have reached agreements with Tribes to coordinate background
checks and other security measures. While many of the opponents
of Indian gaming challenge its security, they have no evidence
to support their claims. In fact, at an October, 1993 House
hearing, Jim Moody, FBI section chief for organized crime,
testified there is "no information to support claims"
that organized crime has infiltrated Indian Gaming, "We've
heard more rumor and innuendoes than we've been able to prove,"
Moody told lawmakers. The third level of Regulation is the
Federal Government: the Department of Justice, FBI and Bureau
of Indian Affairs provide oversight on crimes committed on
Reservations. Finally, the Law (IGRA) established the National
Indian Gaming Commission which became operable in February,
1993 to regulate Indian Gaming.
4. MYTH: INDIAN PEOPLE
DO NOT PAY TAXES.
FACT: INDIAN PEOPLE
PAY ALL TAXES REQUIRED BY STATE AND FEDERAL LAW.
All Indian people pay federal income, FICA
and social security taxes. Most Indians also pay state income
and property taxes. Only the small percentage of Indians who
live and work on federally recognized reservations - not unlike
soldiers and their families living on military installations
- are exempt from paying state income and property taxes.
However, they still pay taxes such as sales and Federal Income
tax.
Indian tribes are governments with responsibilities
to their citizens, but tribes almost uniformly lack a tax
base to support their governmental needs. Some tribes have
found in gaming a means to not only provide jobs and economic
activity on their reservations, but also a source of badly
needed government revenue. As sovereign governments, tribes
do not have to pay taxes on their revenues to any other governments.
Do states pay taxes on their resources derived from gaming
or from any other source? NO!
5. MYTH: IGRA HAS
NOT WORKED AND CANNOT WORK.
FACT: INDIAN GAMING
IS PROVIDING SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS IN STATES WHERE
IGRA HAS BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE TO WORK.
IGRA is working to the benefit of Indians
and non-Indians in several states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Michigan and Connecticut. Reservations are slowly recovering
from decades of failed government programs and building new
houses, community centers, roads and much more. Indians and
non-Indians are proudly leaving welfare rolls and getting
on payrolls. They are taxpayers instead of tax users. Local
and state governments are enjoying increased tax revenues.
Only where states failed to negotiate compacts in "good
faith" in violation of IGRA has the process not worked.
6. MYTH: IGRA IS
AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL INFRINGEMENT UPON STATES' RIGHTS.
FACT: STATES HAVE
RENEGED ON THE DEAL THEY PROPOSED AND ACCEPTED.
The states' ongoing assault on IGRA starts
from the faulty premise that they have some inherent long-standing
right to regulate or curtail tribal gaming. States are now
trying to renege on a deal they proposed and accepted when
Congress passed IGRA in 1988 by unjustly and wrongly asserting
that IGRA violates the 10th and 11th Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution. To the contrary, the Supreme Court's Cabazon
decision was a clear recognition of the right of Indian tribes
to regulate gaming on their lands free of state laws if the
state permitted those activities outside the reservation.
7. MYTH: TRIBAL GAMING
DRAINS RESOURCES AND TAX DOLLARS FROM SURROUNDING NON-INDIAN
GOVERNMENTS AND COMMUNITIES.
FACT: INDIAN GAMING
CREATES ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND TAX DOLLARS FOR SURROUNDING
NON-INDIAN GOVERNMENTS AND COMMUNITIES.
Indian Gaming is now a 5 billion dollar industry
according to Gaming & Wagering Magazine. Indian gaming
creates jobs, increases economic activity and generates tax
revenue both on and off the reservation. Consider the following:
in San Diego county alone, tribal gaming has been responsible
for the creation of more than 5,000 well-paying new jobs,
with a payroll of $22 million per year (and the associated
payroll taxes and employee income taxes). In Minnesota, Indian
gaming has become the state's seventh largest employer, having
created more than 12,000 new jobs - three-fourths of which
are held by non-Indians. And in Connecticut, a single Indian
gaming facility will provide more revenues to the state than
its largest taxpayer, which is one of the country's largest
defense contractors -- direct jobs created nationally, with
the majority of employees being non-Indian.
Tribes have spent millions of dollars for
construction. In addition, they spend many more millions per
year for goods and services - almost all locally.
8. MYTH: BETTER ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES TO GAMING ARE AVAILABLE TO TRIBES.
FACT: INDIAN GAMING
IS THE FIRST - AND ONLY - ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL THAT HAS
EVER WORKED ON RESERVATIONS.
Many reservations are in remote, inconvenient
locations on land that nobody else wanted. Before tribal gaming,
there had been little successful public or private sector
economic development on reservations. The Federal Government/Bureau
of Indian Affairs has not been successful in economic development
on reservations. The states have not proposed any specific
or credible alternatives to Indian gaming as a meaningful
source of tribal revenues and jobs. However, tribal governments
are using the gaming proceeds to diversify and conduct other
economic enterprises.
9. MYTH: TRIBAL GAMING
HAS LITTLE PUBLIC SUPPORT AMONG NON-INDIANS.
FACT: A MAJORITY
OF AMERICANS SUPPORT INDIAN GAMING
Public opinion surveys, both nationally and
within various states, conclusively demonstrate that the public
strongly supports expanded gaming on Indian reservations.
A national Harris Poll in October 1992, and polls in Arizona,
California, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nebraska and Washington,
all show that the general public favors casino-style gambling
on Indian lands but opposes expanded non-Indian gaming opportunities.
The reasons given for supporting tribal gaming are consistent
with the purposes behind IGRA: the revenues will help the
Tribes and surrounding communities become economically self-sufficient
and Tribes should have the right to govern their own lands.
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