US native operators reveal growth in 2017
The latest report released by the National Indian Gaming Commission shows a growth in revenue.
US.- The National Indian Gaming Commission has released the Fiscal Year 2017 Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) numbers, showing an increase of 3.9 per cent over 2016, totalling US$32.4 billion. The report was approved by Chairman Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri, Vice Chair Kathryn Isom-Clause, and Associate Commissioner Sequoyah Simermeyer of the operators’ organisation.
The fiscal year 2017 revenues are calculated from the independently audited financial statements of 494 gaming operations, owned by 242 federally recognised tribes. The GGR for an operation is the amount wagered minus winnings returned to players. It represents earnings before salaries, tribal-state compacts, and operating expenses.
The annual announcement of gross gaming revenue numbers for Indian Country provides a yearly snapshot of the economic health of native gaming. As 2018 marks the 30th year of gaming under IGRA, it is an opportune time to reflect on key policy principles that have helped create the successes of a healthy Indian gaming industry. These policies include the preservation of the role of tribes as the primary regulators and beneficiaries of their operations; recognition and utilisation of Congress’s stated intent and IGRA’s built-in flexibility to promote technological innovation, such as the use of electronic aids in class II gaming.
It also covers the faithful application of the law that accounts for the unique histories and land-bases of tribes and IGRA’s built-in flexibility to allow gaming on a variety of different types of native land. And finally, the primacy of the nation to nation relationship between tribes and the federal government and tribes, one that predates the US Constitution.
“All of Indian Country has worked very hard to maintain a flourishing and constantly growing gaming industry,” said the Chair of the NIGC, Jonodev O. Chaudhuri. “The successes of Indian gaming in the 30 years since IGRA prove that the foundational principles of federal Indian law should remain at the forefront of any future public policy discussions.”
