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TRIBAL GAMBLE: THE SERIES

Day One, 12/10/00
Casino boom benefits non-Indians

The $800 million deal for outsiders at Mohegan Sun

Day Two, 12/11/00
Few tribes share in casino windfall

Gaming success helps tribe gain community acceptance

California tribes hit the jackpot with gaming vote

Day Three, 12/12/00
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Day Four, 12/13/00
Tribes make easy criminal targets

Trump plays both sides in casino bids

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N THE JUSTIFIED furor over President Clinton's parting pardons to well-connected scofflaws, too little attention was paid to 11th-hour rulings by Bureau of Indian Affairs officials as they left to take lobbying jobs on behalf of tribal interests. The rulings gave preliminary or final tribal status - and the potential to make billions on casinos - to claimants whose applications had been found invalid by bureau staff.

Prodded by Globe articles in the past six months on these actions and questionable transactions between tribes and their non-Indian investors, congressmen have begun calling for an investigation into the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Such an inquiry is long overdue, but Congress should also increase the funding and investigative firepower of the National Indian Gaming Commission, which is supposed to be overseeing the Indian casinos.

When Congress in 1988 passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, it hoped to spur development on economically depressed reservations by cutting tribes in on the billions spent on gambling. To oversee the new enterprises and ensure that Indians and not outside investors get the most profit, the act created the Indian gaming commission and required it to limit outsiders to 40 percent of profits.

The law succeeded in spurring creation of highly successful casinos, but failed in its broader ambition. Just 2 percent of Indians earn 50 percent of the $10 billion in annual Indian gaming revenues. Two-thirds of Indians get nothing at all. In the meantime, weak oversight by the commission and the Bureau of Indian Affairs has allowed non-Indian investors in the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut to pocket $1 billion, depriving the Mohegan tribe of $450 million it would have received if regulators had held the tribe and the investors to the letter of the law.

The commission would be better able to police deals like this if it had adequate resources. But the commission has only four auditors, 15 full-time investigators, and $8 million to review 325 Indian gaming operations in 29 states. By comparison, the New Jersey commission keeps track of its 12 Atlantic City casinos with $58 million and no fewer than 200 auditors and investigators.

The tribes, their outside partners, and lobbyists prefer the toothless regulation, and they shower campaign donations on Congress with this in mind. This just invites chicanery, such as the Mohegan Sun deal or an attempt by a Pittsburgh crime family to take over a tribe casino in California. The Bush administration should take action against the Mohegan contract to ensure the tribe gets what the law requires. Congress, for its part, should investigate the Bureau of Indian Affairs' last-minute rulings, strengthen the gaming commission, and amend the 1998 act to steer more money toward aiding reservations too isolated to succeed as gaming centers.

This story ran on page 10 of the Boston Globe on 5/21/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.