Last month these columns criticized New York Governor George Pataki's midnight legislation to create six new Indian-run casinos in his state, part of a national gambling boom. We've since been called racist and part of a "growing national backlash against Indians." Maybe we're getting somewhere. Indian Country Today, the nation's leading Native American newspaper, accused us of "perpetuating Native American stereotypes" because we referred to "Big Chief Pataki," among other perceived insults. We thought we were having fun with Mr. Pataki, not Indians. But in any case the race card has become the first refuge of scoundrels in American politics. The folks who play it are usually trying to deflect attention from the real issues.

The very big issue here is a $10 billion Indian casino industry that has grown with little public scrutiny into a huge political force. Indian Country Today is part of that force, since it's funded by gambling interests with a major stake in Mr. Pataki's casino deals. The paper is controlled by the Oneida Nation of New York, which already owns one casino in the state and is vying for the right to build another. We were especially amused by Indian Country Today's assertion that "Indian gaming is among the most regulated industries in America." The rest of American business should be so lucky. The industry is regulated by the National Indian Gaming Commission, which has a budget of $8 million, or a fraction of the millions that the Indian casino lobby shovels at politicians. A former NIGC regulator-turned-lobbyist told Indian casino executives last year that "your best strategy is to keep the commission at its current size," the Boston Globe has reported.

Gaming advocates like to cite "cooperation" with law enforcement, but the reality is that Indian casinos are largely self-regulating. If Congress is going to get serious about casino corruption, it might give the NIGC some teeth. The commission is responsible for monitoring more than 300 Indian gambling halls, but it has fewer than 30 full-time auditors and investigators. New Jersey gaming authorities, by contrast, employ more than 200 auditors for only 12 casinos. Another reality is the presence of criminal interests in the industry. The chief of the FBI's Organized Crime Section described mob influence at casinos this way to the Los Angeles Times: "Our position is, 'If you build it, they will come.' They understand not only the mechanics of gambling, but also how the industry works: the labor unions, the equipment, the pawn shops, the trucking industry, the housekeeping services, all the collateral industries. They set up kickback schemes, extortion schemes, sweetheart contract schemes."

And come they did to Indian country. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has reported links between Minnesota Indian casinos and "East Coast Mafia families"; companies named in the report denied knowing of any involvement with mob figures, saying any ties had been "coincidental and indirect." In California, the Rincon Indians say they have turned the corner on corruption, but through the 1990s they were plagued by mob takeover attempts, with convictions of a tribal council member and figures linked to the Pittsburgh and Chicago mafia. In Florida last year, the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Seminole tribe's own police investigators had learned of a link to organized crime figures and were fired after bringing the information to the NIGC. Indian gaming looks like a corruption scandal waiting to happen.

It already is a political scandal. Political figures in both parties have abused the federal tribal recognition process, which has granted groups of dubious lineage official tribal status and with it the right to open casinos. A recent report by the Interior Department's Inspector General found that the two Clinton-era heads of the Bureau of Indian Affairs -- Kevin Gover and Michael Anderson -- abused their authority by granting recognition to six tribes, despite objections from BIA professionals. Messrs. Gover and Anderson both left BIA to join law firms working on Indian casino deals. And here's the best part: Mr. Gover is now a columnist for Indian Country Today. Interior's IG also reported that an "egregious" share of the profits at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Casino were taken by gambling mogul Sol Kerzner. He and his partners will rake in about $1 billion of profits through 2014, according to the Boston Globe. The NIGC was powerless to stop Mr. Kerzner from fashioning a loophole that allowed him to evade Congressional regulations limiting non-Indian partners to no more that 40% of the Mohegan tribe's profits.

We think it's a sure bet that the same is slated for New York, thanks to Mr. Pataki and the casino lobby. Indian Country Today would better serve its readers if it tried to uncover such rotten deals instead of flacking for them.
Updated April 4, 2002

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