From: "Victor Rocha" <Victor@...> April 5, 2002

Wall Street Journal
<mailto:letter.editor@...>letter.editor@...

Dear Editor:

At the National Indian Gaming Association, we were disappointed by your
editorial of April 4, 2002. Editorials such as this are a true disservice to
the 300,000 hard working Indian and non-Indian individuals that are employed due
to Tribal government gaming.

Your editorial implies that Indian gaming is unregulated and corrupt with mob
influence. Both assertions are completely false. The fact is that Indian
gaming is a highly regulated industry, subject to regulation at the Tribal,
State, and Federal Government levels. After a year of studying this very issue,
even one of Indian gaming’s most ardent detractors, Paul Moore, Chairman of the
Indian gaming subcommittee of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission,
stated: “Native American gambling operations have two key hurdles to overcome
in the perceptions of the American public: that they are unregulated and that
they are making money hand over fist. Neither is true.”

At the Tribal Government level, Indian Tribes invest $160 million annually to
regulate Indian gaming through tribal gaming commissions and staff. Your
editorial discounted those efforts as mere “self-regulation.” To us,
self-regulation is self-government. At the same time that American patriots
dumped tea in Boston Harbor to promote American self-government, our patriotic
forefathers fought to preserve American Indian self-government. For its part,
the United States guaranteed tribal self-government through treaties that
involved the cession of millions of acres of land.

Moreover, our Tribal gaming commissioners and regulators are highly educated
professionals with exemplary qualifications and Indian Tribes have established
world class, state of the art gaming operations and regulatory systems. For
example, the Director of Security and Surveillance at one of Tribes in Minnesota
is a 24-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Force who served on the SWAT
Team, the Homicide Unit, and Emergency Response Unit. The Executive Director of
a California tribal gaming commission has over 30 years of law enforcement
experience serving as Assistant Chief Inspector for the New Jersey Casino
Control Commission for 11 years and as Vice Inspector for the Philadelphia
Police for over 17 years. And there is a Louisiana Tribal Gaming Commission
Chairman who has over 20 years of military experience, including serving as a
Navy Military Policeman and a U.S. Coast Guard Port Security officer. And there
are many more examples where these came from. The capability, qualifications
and dedication of Tribal operators, regulators and regulatory agencies are
equal to their counterparts of the States and federal government and cannot be
dismissed with the wave of a pen.

At the State level, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act established a system of
Tribal-State Compacts to govern Class III Indian Gaming. Thus, State government
agencies participate in the regulation of Class III Indian gaming at levels
negotiated at through compacts. For example, in New York, the Oneida and Mohawk
Tribes work with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board in regulating
their gaming facilities. In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe has a
State Police Office in their Indian gaming facility. Overall, Indian Tribes
reimburse the States over $40 million annually for state regulation of Indian
gaming.

At the Federal level, Indian Tribes fund the National Indian Gaming Commission
through fee assessments at a level of $8 million annually and the NIGC
coordinates with the Tribal and State government agencies. In addition, through
the Money Laundering Suppression Act, Congress involved the Department of
Treasury in monitoring large cash transactions at Indian gaming facilities, just
as it does for Atlantic City gaming facilities. Under Title 18 USC § 1163, the
FBI and the Justice Department have authority to prosecute anyone who would
cheat, embezzle, or defraud an Indian gaming facility – that applies to
management, employees, and patrons. In a July 2001 review of Indian gaming by
the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, the FBI reported that
“none of their Indian country investigations of isolated allegations of
organized crime have been substantiated.” In other words, the FBI is watching
out for organized crime, and the comprehensive network of Tribal, State, and
Federal system of regulating Indian gaming has been remarkably effective.

We hope that you understand that the integrity of Indian gaming is something
that Tribes take very seriously. Gaming is a resource for Indian Tribes to
provide much needed services to their people, just like State lotteries. After
standing by while the federal government failed to fulfill its treaty
obligations for 500 years, gaming is finally a means for Tribes to re-build
their economies. Reservations that were once ruinous wastelands littered with
dilapidated buildings and crushed by poverty, are finally getting those things
that most Americans take for granted: schools, hospitals, roads, water and sewer
systems, and police and fire protection. That we are finally achieving
self-sufficiency is not something that we take lightly. Nor do we take lightly
our obligation to maintain responsible gaming facilities.

Finally, your reference to “Big Chief Pataki” in a prior editorial does appear
to be intended to conjure up a cartoonish image of the Governor based on a
stereotypical use of American Indian references. Such references do poor
justice to the Native Americans have proudly served this Country in every war in
record numbers and to the Indian ironworkers who built the World Trade Center
and are now back there assisting in the clean up and the rebuilding of America’s
spirit.

Sincerely,
Ernest Stevens, Jr., Chairman
<http://www.indiangaming.org/>National Indian Gaming Association
http://www.pechanga.net/press_release/editorial_national_indian_gaming.htm


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