|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
::::::
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Online Blackjack News - Indian Gambling Casinos
|
|
All over the United States, Indian tribes are opening and running casinos, funding their tribal governments and turning what was once a country of puritan non-gamblers into a nation of punters. How is this so, and why? Is it a good process?
The Pequots tribe, owners of Foxwoods and the richest Indian tribe in the country, like many Indian tribes, have become important political donors and power brokers. It donated $800,000 supporting Bill Clinton's election campaign while Indian tribes have become the largest contributor to California political campaigns. In the late 1990s they spent $70 million on a referendum on gaming. The Indian tribes have also become large charitable donors, with The Table Mountain Rancheria Tribe in California donating $US10 million to a library at California State University in Fresno. It is certainly a far cry from sitting on a barren reservation waiting for the next welfare check to arrive, as has been the case up until now.
In some respects, Native Americans hold a similar position in American society as Aborigines do in Australia. They represent a similar portion of the population and occupy a similar place near the bottom of the ladder. They have a lower life expectancy, high rates of ill-health, lower incomes and higher rates of substance abuse.
But their two histories are quite different. While the US Government signed formal treaties with Indian tribes and Indians have been formally recognized as sovereign entities in the constitution, Australian law assumed the doctrine of "terra nullius" (empty land) until the Mabo decision. That, and the subsequent Wik decision, gave Aborigines some rights to land to which they could prove a continuous connection, but it did not give them the right to self-determination. It could be said the American native people’s state of affairs could serve as a role model for the other countries of the world dealing the same issues.
Native American tribes have the same roles and responsibilities as state governments. They run local police forces, courts, schools and hospitals, and build local roads. As "sovereign nations", other governments have very limited powers over them and it means that gambling is partly self-regulated.
The Pequots' chairman, Michael Thomas, spent three years in jail in his youth for possession of cocaine, which would be enough under Australian gambling regulations to raise serious questions, if not disqualify him from being associated with a casino.
Until gambling, most tribes, because of their isolation, had a narrow base for raising revenue. But in 1987 the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians won a Supreme Court case against the state of California, which had claimed the tribe's bingo hall was illegal under state law. The Supreme Court upheld the right to run gambling enterprises and a year later the federal government passed a law regulating gambling on Indian land.
|
| Source:
Blackjack2002 News Staff
| Sunday, 15 July 2007 |
Related Articles
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Directory LinksThe new and improved Blackjack 2002 directory is currently in development. If you are interested in adding your link, just click on Add Links button.
Add Link
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2002-2012. All rights reserved.BLACKJACK2002.com |
|
