Study: Casinos help Indian tribes out of poverty

Besides the gleaming towers built by gambling wealth, there is evidence in nearly every American Indian reservation in the region that the casino industry is improving people's lives. New homes are being built and old ones are being spruced up. Health centers are expanding their services and sports complexes are being developed. Monthly payments are being disbursed and scholarships are being awarded to tribal members. Yet there is a marked difference among those tribes that have gambling on their reservations and those that don't. Nationwide, casino gambling helped American Indians raise their standard of living during the 1990s, but they were still among the poorest people in the nation, according to a Harvard University study released this month. Family poverty rates among tribes with casinos fell from 36 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2000. But that rate was still three times higher than the national average of 9 percent, according to the study.  Tribes fortunate enough to have their reservations near urban centers or near major highway arteries have clearly had an advantage. Others in remote areas of the county have had to struggle to find their way. For most of the 200 tribes nationwide that run casinos, the benefit of the gaming business lies in the job it generates, not the monthly payments, tribal leaders say. The Harvard study was funded by the National Indian Gaming Association, a tribal gambling trade group. It was conducted by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, a research organization. Tribal members whose governments operate casinos had higher incomes, lower poverty rates, lower unemployment rates and were less likely to receive public assistance than those that did not have casinos, according to the study. [more] and [more]

• Cabazon, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the Socioeconomic Consequences of American Indian Governmental Gaming [more]
• Betting the Future: The Economic Impact of Legalized Gambling [more]