Indian Gaming

"On a recent Wednesday morning, under the gaze of a mounted bison head, Native American tribal leaders filled the Senate Indian Affairs Room for their annual legislative summit. They'd been there many times before, asking for fixes to the laws that govern their existence. This time, however, brought more than the usual sense of unease.

After years of poking at the issue, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is serious about legalizing online poker, allowing states to opt in to a federally regulated system that would give them 14 percent of poker proceeds. He’s said it won’t happen before the end of the year, but the easiest way to get it done might be to attach it to a must-pass bill like the defense authorization—and in a lame-duck session, you never know what might make it to the president’s desk.

Native-friendly politicians cycled through 628 Dirksen to reassure the assembled leaders, some sporting beaded or patterned accents to their halls-of-government drab, that any law change would take tribal interests into account.

"If you're going to do Internet gaming, do it fairly," said the snowy-haired Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, to nods of approval from the audience. "Don't try to pull something where Las Vegas casinos get preferential treatment. We don't want them to get any advantage, even if it's from their perspective.""

Get the Story:
Lydia DePillis: Bad Odds: Online Gaming Would Only Widen Tribal Inequality (The New Republic 12/12)