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Assessing the Impact of Indian Gaming on American Indian Nations: Is the House Winning?
Author(s) -
Conner Thaddieus W.,
Taggart William A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12009
Subject(s) - reservation , indian country , context (archaeology) , census , state (computer science) , developing country , per capita , economic growth , differential (mechanical device) , per capita income , development economics , geography , socioeconomics , economics , demographic economics , political science , sociology , demography , population , law , engineering , computer science , archaeology , algorithm , aerospace engineering
Objective The objective of this article is to examine the impact of Indian gaming on reservation conditions in the contiguous American states following passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. Methods Utilizing 1990 and 2000 Census data for 330 Indian nations, a pretest/posttest design permits a comparison of nongaming nations to three different types of gaming nations on eight economic measures, while controlling for multiple tribal characteristics and considering the effects of certain state contextual factors confronting nations due to location. Results The analysis reveals (1) that the overall impact of gaming, while generally positive, is not as extensive after controlling for certain tribal features, (2) that there are differential effects evident across the three types of gaming nations, and (3) that the state context makes a difference in influencing the relationship between gaming and reservation conditions. The most substantial impacts are for a small subset of nations with Class III gaming and making per capita payments to their members in larger, wealthier states prohibiting non‐Indian casinos. Conclusion These results challenge some of the core assumptions about Indian gaming radically changing the poor economic conditions endemic to Indian country.