Indian Gaming Now

Archive - 2008

December 30th

Indian Gaming and the Economy

Dec 30 2008
Economist Alan Meister, author of the Indian Gaming Industry Report, says that Indian gaming growth has slowed in recent years.

December 18th

Ken Salazar Tapped to Head Interior Department

Dec 18 2008
President-elect Obama has tapped Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) to head the Department of the Interior. Salazar is former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and state attorney general. A first-term senator, he is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

December 15th

A Corrupt North Dakota?!? From the "What Planet Are We On, Anyway?" Files

Dec 15 2008
In the immediate aftermath of the stunning revelations about Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, USA Today published the results of an analysis that puts little old North Dakota at the top of its list of the "most corrupt" states in the U.S. North Dakota had the highest number of federal convictions for public corruption when measured on a per capita basis. With only 635,000 people, 53 convictions in the past decade resulted in a rate of 8.3 convictions per 100,000 people.

December 11th

Who’s the Key to the Transition for Indian Country?

Dec 11 2008
Keith Harper, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Lead on Barack Obama’s Interior Department Review Team. This means he is in the process of shaping what the incoming administration’s Interior Department will look like in terms of personnel as well as ideological and political posture.

December 1st

A (Rare) Informed Editorial on Indian Gaming

Dec 1 2008
An editorial in Saturday’s St. Petersburg Times offers a well-informed perspective on the current stand-off in Florida between the Seminole Tribe and state officials.

After the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the governor exceeded his authority in negotiating (at long last) a compact with the Seminoles, the state has been stymied by how to enforce the court's decision. The governor negotiated table games with the tribe, and the court ruled that the games were beyond the governor's power to authorize.

November 24th

More on the New Navajo Fire Rock Casino

Nov 24 2008
Hundreds of people had to wait to get in to the Navajo Nation's newly opened Fire Rock Casino, near Gallup, NM. More than 4000 people showed up on Wednesday to try their luck.

The Nation’s business model appears to focus on internalizing dollars spent and dollars received, as well as on building tribal economic and institutional capacity. The Nation reports that it financed the casinos, 92 percent of casino employees are Navajo, and it is not using an outside management company.

November 7th

Obama and Indian Country

Nov 7 2008
Wow! We have a new tag for blog posts: Obama!

An historic election has come and gone, and now President-elect Obama has begun the process of building a transition team and his incoming administration. What will be the outlook for Indian Country? Let's try to suss out some informed predictions.