Don't make Native Americans scapegoats for gaming dilemma

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 27, 1995 by Rick Van Warner

Gaming is a huge topic in restaurant circles these days and for good reason. As we have highlighted in these pages frequently over the past few years, including a front-page article last week, few issues ever have posed a greater potential long-term threat to foodservice than that of the rapid spread of legalized gaming.

Sadly, the understandable backlash over gaming by many industry operators and lobbyists also has fueled misperceptions and, in some quarters, an ugly bias against Native Americans. As is too often the case when an emotionally heated issue is at stake, prejudice and ignorance are taking precedence over perspective and fact.

And in the rush to lay blame for lost sales or, worse, lost businesses, some angry fingers are being pointed at "Indians."

Certainly, casinos and gambling on tribal reservations are one of the fastest-growing segments of the gaming business from a percentage basis. But to single out Native Americans as the root of gaming-related problems is misguided.

For one thing, reservation casinos account for a mere 7.5 percent of the $34 billion generated by casinos nationwide each year, according to the National Indian Gaming Association. Meanwhile, the expansion of casinos and gambling parlors to more reservations in many cases is fueled by huge gaming companies or other profit-minded outsiders as much as it is by Native Americans themselves.

But much more damaging to the "Indian" community at large is the perception that the casinos are, in one fell swoop, taking Native Americans from poverty to prosperity.

More than half of the proceeds from the roughly 131 U.S. Indian gaming centers today goes to outside management firms, the gaming association reports. And only about 15 percent of the gaming-related jobs are going to Indians, the group says.

Moreover, only a small percentage of the casinos are enjoying fat margins.

According to U.S. Assistant Interior Secretary Ada Deer in a recent newspaper report, just 20 of the 554 federally recognized tribes, representing a scant 1 percent of the Native American population, are proving successful with their gaming operations. Particularly in the Western United States, where population densities are lower and the proximity of many reservations to Nevada can't help, returns have been mixed at best.

Obviously, the full economic impact of gaming on impoverished tribes remains to be seen.

But the popular perception persists that Indians across the land are getting rich from tax-exempt gaming.

Tragically, it's a perception that threatens to deal yet another terrible blow to a community already struggling to survive. For Congress, largely buoyed by the notion of brighter skies among Native Americans thanks to gaming returns, is proposing deep cuts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Budget impasse notwithstanding, the agency responsible for the well-being and economic vitality of one of the nation's poorest groups may suffer the deepest cuts of all federal agencies. To compound matters, Congress also is now proposing to tax Indian gaming revenues.

Largely thanks to the flash, allure and illusion of gambling, many of the nation's poorest likely will soon be getting poorer.

That is not to suggest that the gaming operations haven't been godsends to some reservations.

The economic boost, in many cases the first major source of new revenues in decades, has helped fund everything from health care, education and social services to new roads and businesses.

But the bright lights and excitement of the casino itself belie the bleak reality that exists within minutes of the establishment's doors, mirroring the actual conditions among most Native American communities today. Abject about 12 percent of adults earning more than $7,000 a year and unemployment running at a whopping 55 percent.

As good as the casinos have been for some - after all, something is better than nothing - they are far from a cure-all. While short-term returns are helping fund long-needed initiatives, the long-term prognosis is much cloudier.

Many observers, both inside and outside the Native American community, feel that gaming ultimately hurts local economies by fostering a dependence. In a community that long has struggled with other demons of dependence, such as alcoholism, it is a particularly poignant scenario.

Perhaps, as some suggest, gaming proceeds finally will prove to be some retribution for a long-forgotten population in this country, a people essentially absent from the political wrangling that ultimately shapes American lives. Maybe gaming will help give this community the financial and political clout it desperately needs.

More likely. congressional cuts and taxes will combine to wipe out any gains that have been made. And as Native Americans have done for well over two centuries, they simply will continue their constant struggle for survival.

As for the notion that "Indians" are the main enemies in the fight to halt the proliferation of gaming, perhaps less time should be devoted to blaming an easy scapegoat and more time spent devising new strategies to address a changing competitive landscape.