Part 1 - Look Who's Cashing In At Indian Casinos - Hint: It's not the people who are supposed to benefit
Wheel of Misfortune
Who Gets the Money
The Moneymen
The Great Land Rush
Whose Tribe Is It, Anyway?

Part 2 - Playing the Political Slots - How Indian casino interests have learned the art of buying influence in Washington

Short Articles

Facts

So how, exactly, is Hollow Horn prospering from the $12.7 billion Indian gaming industry?  Like most Native Americans, not a t all.  last year the Oglala's Prairie Wind Casino, housed in a temporary, white circus-tent-like structure smaller than a basketball court, turned a profit of $2.4 million on total revenue of $9.5 million.  Most of the money went to fund general programs, such as services for the elderly and young people, as well as education and economic development.  But even if there had been profit sharing instead, thepayout would have worked out to a daily stipend of just 16 cents for each of the 41,000 tribe members.

That's not to say that members of a few small tribes near big cities aren't doing very well from gaming.  In Minnesota, 300 members of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community reportedly take home more than $1 million a year.  but bands like that are the exceptoin.  Only 25% of gaming tribes distribute dcash to their members, usually no more than a few thousand dollars each.

So if the overwhelming majority of Native Americans like Hollow Horn aren't benefiting from the Indian casino boom, who is?  In many cases, the big winners are non-Indian investors, some of whom pocket more than 40% of an Indian casinos' profits.  Actually, calling these people investors understates their role.  They often serve as master strategists who draw up the plans and then underwrite the total cost of bringing a casino online: ferreting out an amenable tribe, paying a signing bonus, picking up tribal expenses and paying the salaries of the tribe's officials, all of this before a spade of dirt is turned.  If an indian band isn't federally recognized as a tribe and is thus ineligible for a gaming venture, these full-service backers will bankroll genealogists to construct a family tree, then hire lawyers and lobbyists in Washington to help change the band's status.  And if a reservation isn't prime real estate for a casino, the investors sometimes purchase a more suitable patch and instruct their lawyers and lobbyists to persuade the governemnt to designate the land as a trust, as reservatoin property is called.  Building the casino is the easiest step.