Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the act include providing a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encouraging economic development of these tribes, and protecting the enterprises from negative influences. The law established the National Indian Gaming Commission and gave it a regulatory mandate. The law also delegated new authority to the U.S. Department of the Interior and created new federal offenses, giving the U.S. Department of Justice authority to prosecute them.
The law has been the source of extensive controversy and litigation. One of the key questions is whether the National Indian Gaming Commission and Department of Interior can be effective in regulating tribal economic decisions related to Indian gaming. The controversies have produced litigation, some of it reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
Background and precedents
Historic and cultural
is a part of many traditional Indian cultures. Tribal games include dice and shell activities, archery competitions, races, and so on. When Native Americans were moved to Indian Reservations in the mid- to late 1800s, most were left with limited economic opportunity. Today, most of these reservations "are located in remote areas with little indigenous economic activity.... have some of the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, welfare dependency, school dropout, alcoholism, and other indicators of poverty and social distress of any communities in the U.S."The use of gaming to generate profit did not begin until the late 1970s and early 1980s within Indian communities. Several tribes, especially in California and Florida, opened bingo parlors as a way to earn revenue. Their actions were related to the search for new sources of revenue, given the emphasis the Reagan administration placed on economic self-sufficiency for the tribes.
Legal
While bingo was legal in California and Florida, those states had stringent regulations. Operating on the history of tribal sovereignty, some tribes did not comply with these laws. High-stakes Indian bingo operations soon arose in California, Florida, New York and Wisconsin. The industry grew rapidly. State governments began contending that revenues from their own gaming operations dropped as Native American operations increased the potential stakes.Several laws influenced the creation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Many of these influential laws came from U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding tribal sovereignty. While a number of court rulings played a significant role in the development of legislation regarding reservation gambling rights, two landmark cases, Bryan v. Itasca County and California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, provided major legal breakthroughs.
''Bryan v. Itasca County''
In the early 1970s, Helen and Russell Bryan, members of the Chippewa Tribe, lived on a reservation in Itasca County, Minnesota. In 1972, the county notified them that their mobile home was subject to state property taxes. Unable to pay the tax, they turned to legal services and filed a class action lawsuit against the state, alleging that the state did not have the jurisdiction to tax personal property of Native Americans living on reservations.According to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government possesses the sole right to treat with Native Americans. Case law has since granted Congress jurisdiction over Indian reservations. Yet, Public Law 280, passed by Congress in 1953, transferred criminal jurisdiction over Indian reservations from the federal government to certain states. Although both the district court and Minnesota Supreme Court originally ruled in favor of the state, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision in 1976. The Court interpreted PL 280 more narrowly, designed to address only "crimes and civil disputes, not a unilateral grant of broad authority to states."
Therefore, states were given jurisdiction over criminal laws on reservations, but not over civil regulatory laws. This new interpretation of PL 280 opened the gates for the Indian gaming industry and led to the creation of a variety of economic development ventures on reservations. Gaming soon became the most widely successful economic initiative on reservations across the country.
''California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians''
Another court case that paved the way for the IGRA was in the mid-1980s when the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians started a small bingo parlor and card club on their southern California reservation. Although the state attempted to shut down these gambling operations, the Cabazon tribe filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that such an action was illegal in light of prior court rulings and the sovereign rights of the reservation. The state, on the other hand, argued that running such a high-stakes gambling organization was illegal and therefore punishable as a criminal violation of law, in accordance with Public Law 280. The Cabazon case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.The "Native American cause" prevailed as California gambling laws were ruled regulatory, not prohibitory. The ruling was made because of the allowance of another form of gambling: the state lottery. This ruling plainly recognized the sovereign rights of Indian tribes living on reservations. By affirming that gambling could not be regulated by states, the Court opened the door for the Native American gaming industry.
Gambling quickly became a popular instrument for economic development on reservations striving for economic opportunity. As the growth in Indian gaming continued in the 1980s, though, tensions increased.
States began lobbying the federal government to allow states to regulate Indian gaming. States argued that their regulation was needed to stop infiltration by organized crime. They also wanted to be able to tax revenues gained by Indian gaming. Tribes fought the states in an effort both to maintain tribal sovereignty and to protect Indian gaming revenues to support economic development. Congress responded with the set of compromises which evolved into the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
The primary legislators involved in drafting the Act were Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Representative and then Senator John McCain of Arizona, and Representative Mo Udall of Arizona. Representative Udall had previously sponsored numerous bills regarding Native American issues and rights. At the time, Senator McCain was serving as a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, of which Senator Inouye was the chairman. As S.555, the bill passed the United States Senate on September 15, 1988. The House passed the bill on September 27. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on October 17, 1988.
Some aspects of the law were later clarified through court cases. Whether revenue from the Indian casinos was subject to other governmental taxation was determined in Chickasaw Nation v. United States. And, in 2009, the Supreme Court ruled in Carcieri v. Salazar that the Department of the Interior could not take land into trust that was acquired by tribes recognized after 1934.
Three classes
The Act establishes three classes of games with a different regulatory scheme for each:Class I
Class I gaming is defined as traditional Indian gaming, which may be part of tribal ceremonies and celebrations, and social gaming for minimal prizes. Regulatory authority over class I gaming is vested exclusively in tribal governments and is not subject to IGRA's requirements.Class II
Class II gaming is defined as the game of chance commonly known as bingo and, if played in the same location as the bingo, pull tabs, punch board, tip jars, instant bingo, and other games similar to bingo. Class II gaming also includes non-banked card games, that is, games that are played exclusively against other players rather than against the house or a player acting as a bank. The Act specifically excludes slot machines or electronic facsimiles of any game of chance from the definition of class II games.Tribes retain their authority to conduct, license, and regulate class II gaming so long as the state in which the Tribe is located permits such gaming for any purpose, and the Tribal government adopts a gaming ordinance approved by the National Indian Gaming Commission. Tribal governments are responsible for regulating class II gaming with Commission oversight. Only Hawaii and Utah continue to prohibit all types of gaming.
Class III
The definition of class III gaming is broad. It includes all forms of gaming that are neither class I nor II. Games commonly played at casinos, such as slot machines, blackjack, craps, and roulette, clearly fall in the class III category, as well as wagering games and electronic facsimiles of any game of chance. Generally, class III is often referred to as casino-style gaming. As a compromise, the Act restricts Tribal authority to conduct class III gaming.Before a Tribe may lawfully conduct class III gaming, the following conditions must be met:
- The Particular form of class III gaming that the Tribe wants to conduct must be permitted in the state in which the tribe is located.
- The Tribe and the state must have negotiated a tribal-state compact that has been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, or the Secretary must have approved regulatory procedures.
- The Tribe must have adopted a Tribal gaming ordinance that has been approved by the Chairman of the Commission.