More than a dozen bingo halls raided and closed by state police in effort to stop illegal gambling

WVTM ^ | 04/12/2023 | Mattie Davis

[whitney69]

“The injuns don’t want any competition”

I live in Washington state where there are no non-indian casinos. Regulation of these games is within tribal jurisdiction, subject to oversight by the National Indian Gaming Commission. Traditional or ceremonial Class I gaming remains within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Indian tribes. It is under the control of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) signed into law in 1988 by Ronald Reagan.

Having the control for the Indian tribes includes most states that have casinos only on Indian land and must conform to building, food, and treatment laws, plus the tribes pay the state and local government a fee based upon revenue. When you consider this, they are just another business that working on their land and supporting themselves just like a farmer. And remember, they were ahead of the now here and at one time controlled all the land.

The only two states that don’t allow gambling are Hawaii, where gambling was outlawed prior to statehood, and Utah, which has a Latter-day Saint majority population and also bans gambling in the state constitution. And some states allow certain types of gambling but not others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling_in_the_United_States#:~:text=As%20of%202020%2C%20Nevada%20and,imposing%20licensing%20and%20zoning%20restrictions.

There have been challenges to the Indian control and have been used to create things like the accepted education lotteries in many states. Money used by all.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources operates under an order from the Commissioner of Public Lands to ensure management of state-owned lands is done in collaboration with the twenty-nine federally recognized tribes of Washington State. In other words, we are taking the farmer that grows a crop, and specifically taxing them for it’s growth and sales. In other states like California, it’s called subsidies and the money flows through deals to state and federal governments. Quite a racket, huh? Just another form of taxing to control the receiving of taxpayer money and earmark it for certain things and not in the general funds. Indian/US and local government, win/win.

wy69

[whitney69]

“I will say that that particular one helps the community a lot.”

In many ways people don’t consider what the revenue means. Gambling promotes jobs, sales of products, and money for roads and education on and off tribal land. In many ways, Gambling should have been a four letter word. But people in Washington state are staunchly against ‘gambling everywhere’ proposals. They tolerate current levels of gambling because it is limited primarily to tribal facilities and effectively regulated (kept in one place and watched). So with the generation of revenue for the state along with the tribes, it is holding its own and producing for a lot of people.

wy69