Indian Gaming > Few seem happy with Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

June 06, 2006

Few seem happy with Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

No one seems happy with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, not even one of the lawmakers who wrote it.

At a meeting of the National Council of Legislators for Gaming States in Boston, tribal, state, federal and other representatives quibbled over the way the law was written, how it is interpreted and how it is applied. IGRA is a "gross violation of state sovereignty" or "a diminishment of tribal sovereignty," depending on who is talking.

But Phil Hogen, the chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, noted that tribal casinos have been "the best thing that ever happened, as far as economic development goes, in Indian Country," Stephens Washington Bureau reported.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), one of the authors of the law, is now leading the charge to update IGRA to take into account the expansion of the industry from $500 million to $20 billion.

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Most unhappy with Indian gaming law (Stephens Washington Bureau 6/5)