More On Off-reservation Gaming

In the March 30th Post, “Off reservation expansion” it was noted that James E. Cason, Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior, indicated that new rules would apply when tribes look to expand to off-reservation sites.

Yesterday at the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi MS, George Skibine, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, reiterated this saying, "The BIA considers local input when making land-into-trust decisions. We're looking at the local government to tell us if that is detrimental to their community.” He said it will be harder for tribes to open casinos away from reservation as long as Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is around. "If you are a tribe interested in off-reservation gaming, the forecast is gloomy and bleak. There is a changing climate here at Interior." Skibine also said the department plans in the next two months to produce regulations that would clarify the process of off-reservation gaming. He said the department considers how far the off-reservation land is from the reservation and whether it would be correcting a historical wrong.

There have been only 3 Indian tribes in the last 19 years have received off-reservation gaming approval and none of those have been in California. Currently there are 34 applications before the Department of Interior.