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Online Gaming Talk Heats Up With Native American Tribes, by Greg Tingle - 19th November 2011

Native American tribes advised Thursday they want their cut of the jobs and revenue if online gambling is allowed in the United States but they don't want to lose their sovereignty to get it.

Internet gambling has been prohibited in the U.S. since 2006, which has seen players and their cash go to to websites and internet portals based offshore. With Congress searching for money to cut the deficit and create new jobs, supporters see an opening for legalizing at least some online gambling opportunities.

Should Congress act, the federal government will have to write rules and will likely collect taxes from proceeds. Native American tribes want the federal government to ensure they are allowed to operate, regulate, tax and license online gambling as well, if they choose to get in on the business.

"Although there is no legislation before the committee right now, one thing we are all aware of is the need for additional resources at the federal level," said Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which held a hearing Thursday to air tribes' concerns on the issue. "The discussions surrounding potential Internet gaming legislation have only increased as Congress looks to the supercommittee to find revenue sources and Congress looks to create jobs ..."

The supercommittee Akaka referred to is a bipartisan committee of 12 lawmakers created this summer to find a plan to reduce government borrowing by least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. The committee is stalled in part over whether to raise new revenue.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee planned to hold its second hearing Friday on Internet gambling. There is bipartisan support for at least some Internet gambling. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has pushed for its legalization for years.

While there is no Internet gambling bill before the Senate committee, there is legislation in the House, though it already has opposition from tribal leaders.

Ernie Stevens, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, said tribes have united behind some core principles, including no taxation of tribal revenues. Current Internet gambling proposals violate those principles, "and we oppose their passage," Stevens said.

One such measure, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, would legalize online poker. Spokesman Sean Brown said the legislation would allow tribes, like states, to opt out of allowing Internet gambling if they chose.

Some at Thursday's hearing expressed concern about proposals to allow the Department of Commerce to regulate operators of Internet games. Tribal leaders are calling for the National Indian Gaming Commission to continue to regulate their businesses.

The commission reported that last year, 236 tribes operated 422 gambling facilities in 28 states, generating $27 billion in revenue, evidence that the commission has the expertise to regulate tribal Internet gambling and won't have to start from scratch, learning laws particular to tribes as well as cultural considerations, witnesses at the hearing said.

Not all tribes support Internet gambling. Some see it as a potential competitor to their established brick-and-mortar casinos.

"The Tulalip tribe sees the legalization of Internet gambling as a direct threat to the economic growth in Indian Country," said Glen Gobin, vice chairman of the Tulalip Tribes of Tulalip, West Virginia.

"Do you think tribes are going to be able to compete with someone like Harrah's on Internet gaming?" Gobin asked.

Many U.S gaming companies including land based casinos are now starting to adopt online gaming into their business model, with MGM Resorts International recently teaming up with Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment (which owns and operates PartyCasino.com PartyPoker.com World Poker Tour).

It's widely believed that the U.S will see legal online gambling up and running soon, but then again, that's been the world for years, so for much of the gaming industry, they will believe it when they see it.

In the meantime entities such as Global Gaming Directory, Casino News Media and a host of entertainment and gaming website portals should consider to do a healthy trade.

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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations and by Christopher Columbus' historical mistake "Indians", modernly disambiguated as "American Indians", "Amerindians" or "Amerinds".

According to the still debated New World migration model, a migration of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which formerly connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The minimum time depth by which this migration had taken place is confirmed at c. 12,000 years ago, with the upper bound (or earliest period) remaining a matter of some unresolved contention. These early Paleoamericans soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living there since their genesis, described by a wide range of traditional creation accounts.

Application of the term "Indian" originated with Christopher Columbus, who thought that he had arrived in the East Indies, while seeking India. This has served to imagine a kind of racial or cultural unity for the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Once created, the unified "Indian" was codified in law, religion, and politics. The unitary idea of "Indians" was not originally shared by indigenous peoples, but many now embrace the identity.

While some indigenous peoples of the Americas were historically hunter-gatherers, many practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time and work in reshaping, taming, and cultivating the flora indigenous to the Americas.[4] Some societies depended heavily on agriculture while others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and massive empires. (Credit: Wikipedia).

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