"EARLIER THIS SUMMER, the U.S. Department of
the Interior released a June 18, 2010 memorandum
from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to Assistant
Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo
Hawk detailing the Department’s approach to Indian
gaming.1 Though the Secretary’s memorandum addressed
decision making on pending applications for
Indian gaming on newly acquired trust lands, it revealed
much about the Obama administration’s approach
to tribal gaming generally. Indeed, the accompanying
press release touted the memorandum
as the Interior Department’s “Path Forward on Indian
Gaming Policy.”
In this essay, we provide some background on the
Obama administration’s Indian gaming policy, summarize
the Salazar memorandum, and offer our take
on what the memorandum signals for the future of
Indian gaming—and particularly, for “off-reservation”
gaming.
A formal announcement of the Obama administration’s
policy on Indian gaming has been long
awaited. The outgoing Bush administration had, by
most accounts, a spotty record at best on tribal gaming issues. Then-Assistant Secretary Carl Artman’s
January 2008 memorandum establishing the “commutable
distance” standard for off-reservation landinto-
trust applications,2 continued efforts to establish “bright line” regulations for Class II machines,3 and
a chronically understaffed National Indian Gaming
Commission (NIGC) marked what many saw as the
Bush administration’s failure to meaningfully support
both Indian gaming and tribal economic development."
Get the Story:
Kathryn R.L. Rand, and Steven Andrew Light: The Obama Administration’s “Path Forward on
Indian Gaming Policy” and What it Signals for
“Off-Reservation” Gaming (Gaming Law Review and Economics July/August 2010
Relevant Documents:
Secretary Salazar Memo on Gaming
Land Applications | Press
Release: Interior Details Path Forward on Indian Gaming Policy
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