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Indian Casinos rake in $18.5 billion, nearly twice as much as Nevada's gambling industry!

I had no idea.


http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2005/02/16/92381.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=LocalNews&sp1=rgj&...

National Indian gaming group releases report of success story

Thomas J. Walsh
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
2/16/2005 12:38 am

Indian gambling revenues around the nation were almost twice that of Nevada’s in 2004, according to a report from a tribal gaming group released Tuesday.

“It looks like the Indians are surrounding the cowboys, doesn’t it?” said Victor Rocha, a member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians in Riverside County, Calif.

Indian casinos pulled in $18.5 billion in 2004, a 10 percent increase versus 2003 and the latest year of double-digit growth for the booming industry, the National Indian Gaming Association said.

“You go to any Indian Country casino around the country and they are growing and expanding,” said Rocha, editor of Pechanga.net, a prominent Web site that sends out daily gaming news to thousands nationwide. “Indian gaming is still in its infancy.

“Just look at the newspapers. You’re not going to get more tribes, but the expansion will continue.”

NIGA figures indicate that tribal casinos have far surpassed Nevada casinos in gambling revenue. Silver State resorts took in $19.59 billion in fiscal 2004 (ended last June 30) — but only $9.88 billion of that was from the casino floor. Also, those figures represent only the 258 casinos that grossed more than $1 million.

The Indian casinos’ figure accounts only for gambling activities, leaving out increasingly lucrative revenues from expanded hotels, spas, golf courses and food and beverage operations.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board last week reported that the Silver State’s total win (solely gambling revenues) for calendar 2004 — small and large casinos alike — was $10.56 billion.

Another benefit NIGA officials cited was increased employment created by tribal casinos — mostly for non-Indians. Officials said tribal gambling directly or indirectly created 553,000 jobs, and generated $5.5 billion in federal taxes last year.

“These Indian gaming casinos all over the country have proven to be very successful,” said Dick Scott, a retired Boomtown Hotel Corp. executive who handles local government affairs for the Eldorado, Silver Legacy, Circus Circus and Harrah’s Reno casino-resorts in Reno. “They have prime locations, very little competition and millions of people to draw from.

“It’s a convenience factor, and I’m sure there are a lot more people learning to gamble. They are going to stop by for dinner some time just to check it out, and then they’ll get familiar with a slot machine or a 21 table.”

Rocha rattled off at least six Native American casinos in Southern California alone that recently built large hotels and greatly widened their casino floors.

“We live in a gambling-crazy country,” he said. “You can’t show breasts on TV, but you can show slot machines.

“It’s the society we live in. The tribes are providing a service; people want to gamble.”

Rocha said new and expanded casinos “didn’t cannibalize the market for everyone else — it’s just building it. People are just now starting to find out there’s gambling in California.”

“Is Indian gaming working?” said NIGA Executive Director Mark Van Norman, . “Well, resoundingly yes.”

In Northern California, in addition to the successful Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln — Northern Nevada’s closest competitor — other tribes have plans for gaming facilities in the Sacramento-San Francisco area.

The Indian casino figures were an estimate for calendar 2004, based on data from tribes. Final figures will be released in the summer by the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Van Norman was not able to provide a net profit figure.

Twenty-eight states have Indian gaming, with a total of 411 casinos operated by 223 tribes.

Many of them have been built since Congress passed a 1988 law creating the legal framework for Indian gambling. Most of the large California casino-resorts got started only after 1998, however, when Proposition 5 was approved by voters.

Because tribes are sovereign nations, they are not subject to the usual state or local taxes. They also are exempt from many zoning and other laws, a special status that often causes conflict with neighbors.

To head off opposition, tribal leaders have grown more aggressive about asserting benefits. They said gambling has allowed them to lift their reservations out of poverty.

“We had to overcome insurmountable odds to turn our economy around,” said Dee Pigsley, chairwoman of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, which has a casino in Oregon. “We looked to casino gaming as a way to do that.”

The growth of the industry has been “completely unexpected and spectacular,” said I. Nelson Rose, who teaches gaming law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif. He and other experts, though, agree with Rocha, and predict it could continue at the same level for some time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.