Just last year, tribal gambling brought in more than $26 billion while commercial gambling revenue totaled $34 billion, said Frank Fahrenkopf, the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the American Gaming Association. “For a number of years now, tribal gaming revenues have been growing faster than the commercial side of gaming,” Fahrenkopf said.
Tribal casino revenues may continue to increase by more than $1 billion a year, forecasted Michael Anderson of Washington, D.C., the former deputy assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at the Interior Department.
The economic growth is dramatically changing lives. Citizens of the United Auburn Indian Community used to live in poverty in northern California, sleeping in cars or hunkering down in rundown houses with plastic sheets for windows.
But, in five short since the opening of the Thunder Valley Casino near Lincoln, Calif., the 275-citizen tribe has left the squalor for upscale housing, opened a pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade school and have provided citizens with comprehensive health care coverage.
Tribal casinos profit reports are confidential, but Nevada gambling experts estimate that Thunder Valley takes in $500 million to $600 million annually and probably exceeds the revenue of all the casinos in Reno.
With the sovereignty of the Auburn Indians, Thunder Valley doesn’t have to pay California taxes on the profits that flow into the tribal treasury. Tribal citizens each get a per capita share of the profits, as long as they have a high school diploma or GED and have taken courses in finance.
A tribal spokesman said that the Auburn Indians have become one of the most generous philanthropic organizations in northern California, donating $1 million to Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital.
“This is their hospital, the one that they went too primarily to the emergency room, because they didn’t have their own doctors,” Doug Elmets, the tribal spokesman, said. “They had to go there, wait in line for hours to get medical care. Many of the tribal members have had kids in that hospital and now they are able to give back $1 million.”
A planned December 17 grand opening of the latest tribal property in northern California, the Red Hawk Casino near Placerville, is eagerly awaited. The tribal casino of the Mewalk Tribe could help grow the northern California gambling market.
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