There are a lot of problems with gambling and regulating it in the US. The Seneca Nation knows full well the problems gambling provides. The tribe has had a long-standing pact with the government that they would be the only slot machine operators in the state of New York. For a long time the pact worked, but now things are quickly souring. The state government is refusing to meet with the tribe to discuss the issue of slots. Because of a lack of working with them, the Seneca Nation is now holding back slots revenues to the state. These monies equal millions of dollars every month and that could be what it is going to take to turn things around for them or at minimum for the government to agree to meet with them.

There was a backlash though. The Seneca Tribal leaders started making their own rules in terms of paying out. They decided to make payouts to individual cities, rather than the state government. Once they did this, Governor Paterson stood up and took notice. He realized their intention and immediately stated that it was “unacceptable” that they decide for themselves to operate this way. He maintained that the government has never worked this way and therefore the tribe was not allowed to make payments to anyone but the state government as they have for years now. Of course the Seneca Tribal leaders didn’t lose sleep over the response—rather they maintained that if the government leaders would just meet with them they could discuss the issue among themselves and come to a mutually beneficial outcome. As of right now the government has two ways to manage the issue with the tribe. They can either continue to ignore them or they can shut them down. The tribe however has already maintained strongly that it will not be put aside on the issue of slots gambling. They want to meet with government officials and bring in the right solution for their concerns as gaming giants within the state. Only time will tell whether or not they will get their meeting, or if the issue will continue to be pushed to even greater ends.

There are still a lot of rules to sort out with slot machine laws throughout the US. In New York, new problems are arising. Now it is the Seneca Nation of Indians that are beginning to fight over casino gaming fees being incurred. The tribe states that they are being charged large fees for gaming but should not be. Their suggestion was to pay out those fees to the local community, rather than paying them directly to the state. The Governor has rejected that suggestion, stating that they have to rather focus on the state pay. Governor Paterson said “This is not how New York State government works.” The Seneca Nation has long had issues with the Buffalo, New York area. They are trying to still come up with a better way to bring gambling to the state. The tribally-owned casino operators know that they are bringing in huge dollars but are taking offense at the amount of money that is considered to be “state regulated fees.” The fees are adding up to a much larger chunk of what was earlier decided upon. The Seneca Nation believes that they are being overcharged for the gambling services.

Indian-owned casinos are in the battle for their position in the gambling market. now that more and more casinos are opening in areas, the market of casino gambling is no longer solely a tribal issue. There is so much competition now that it is putting Indian-owned casinos at bay. They have to solidify their own positions in the market. Plus with the addition of online gambling companies the market is being pushed to a competition that until now has never been reached. Most Indian-owned casinos make that their only form of revenue and that alone is posing problems for their future financial progressions. Many are coming up with promotions and benefits for gamers in their areas hoping that is enough to sway them into their doors. It is working, but the competition is fierce and showing no signs of a cut back any time soon. Only time will tell how casinos owned by Indian tribes are going to fair in the future of gambling.

The San Manuel Tribe in California has been instrumental in bringing gambling to the state. It all began back in 2007 when the Tribe made a push for gaming by coming up with an agreement between them and the state. Their goal was to operate thousands of slot machines throughout their casinos and benefit financially from the revenue. Jerry Paresa, executive director of the tribe, said that though the tribe worked hard to come up with a viable plan, there is let a legislator to jump on board with the proposal.
Now that the topic of gambling is even more prevalent in the US, California tribes are hoping that legislators are ready to revisit the issue. The landscape of debate has changed. Back in 2007 the nation was pre-recession and though the added millions of dollars from gambling tax-dollar revenues would have been nice, it wasn’t a necessity. Now that the recession is over, the state needs some way of bringing in money. California is under a huge deficit right now—it was huge before the recession and now it is enormous. Without some viable option of handling the issue the state could experience a total financial collapse. That is why legislators are being pushed to revisit legalizing gambling and using the money to shore up the huge deficit. Without it, there are few options for bringing in millions of much-needed dollars.
The San Manuel Indian Tribe leaders manage the Indian Bingo and Casino in San Bernardino. It has formerly been a very successful gambling center and brings in a lot of money to the tribe. The proposal to bring more slots gambling to the casino and then in turn, bring more money into the state is an attractive one. The tribe would have to pay the state of California $45 million annually. That is not a small sum of money and could considerably change the huge deficit legislators are struggling with. If legislators make moves to overcome the budget problems, most likely gambling and slots gaming will be an integral part of the changes. Only time will tell how dependent the state allows itself to become on gambling, but as a first step out of the recession, the change is needed.

California has seen difficult times since the recession. The state is looking for revenue and having a difficult time coming up with new options. Tribes that own casinos in the state are having the same financial troubles. Tribes are complaining that their numbers are down and their taxes to the state are to hefty to manage as a result. They say that since the recession their numbers have dropped significantly and have yet to return to anywhere near where they were before the economic meltdown. For this reason, most are projecting that their revenue will continue to struggle until the economy returns to its normal state.

Experts are predicting it will take months, even years, for the economy to return to its pre-recessionary condition. Although analysts project that there should be visible signs of improvement by mid-2010, that doesn’t mean that industries of real estate and lending will return to normal any time soon. In fact, they are projected to continue being depressed until well into 2011. Expert Judy Duden, of Economy.com said, “The unemployment rate needs to level off before any major changes will be seen in the banking, lending or real estate industries.”

Tribal leaders in California also are requesting for an expansion of their slot machines. They believe the added revenue is the only thing that will reinvigorate their own revenues. State administrators however have other plans. They argue that more slot machines would lead to traffic congestion and a spike in crime, and they said that with the numbers down they can’t handle more expenses. The tribes eventually took the issue to court and the administration lost. That means that more slot machines will be brought into the state.

Critics of the move are citing the tribe’s past problems. If people weren’t coming in to gamble on the slots they have now, will a new fleet of the machines bring people in? No one knows for sure whether or not the move will work. On one hand, people may continue to steer clear of gambling until their own paychecks are stable. Or, people may be intrigued by the advertising of new games and take a chance. No one knows for sure, but the huge upfront cost of the added expansion needs to be well pondered before implemented.

The problem began years ago when the Seminole Indians tried bringing slot machines to the state of Florida. Then-Governor Jeb Bush petitioned hard to keep slots out of the state. It was a pretty simple issue at the time because slots were not allowed. To bring them in would have involved heavy changes in legislation and the chances of the fight beginning back then, just wasn’t that probable. Now, however things are different.

Since the recession many legislators have changed their minds regarding slots and the reason is primarily financial. The recession ravaged most state coffers and finding money is a difficult task. Deficits are huge and the way many legislators are trying to overcome the problem is through legalizing slots gambling. Historically, slots parlors are highly lucrative. Las Vegas is a city where gambling has varied throughout the year, but almost inevitably the slots parlors are packed. Legislators know this and are working hard to bring legislation into states that would allow gambling tax revenues to benefit the state’s finances.

Part of the reason the issue is being pushed is because Miami Dade and Broward Counties voted to allow slot machines in their counties so the state now had to comply and them to bring them in. Had Florida jumped on the slot machine bandwagon sooner, it would have been able to write the rules in terms of how slots revenue would be portioned out. Because it didn’t, it now has to be careful to watch now the two counties wrote their legislative code regarding slots gambling. They could have cut themselves a good chunk of revenue first, and then portioned it out to the counties and cities that wanted to move into gambling.

The Seminold Indian Tribe is hurting for cash and so is the state. It seems like the two are coming to an agreement regarding slots and hoping to both benefit from the revenues available. Now the the recession is over, economists are hoping that people start putting more money into the economy.That includes gambling– if people start gambling again, the Seminole Indian Tribe will be able to save their businesses and the state of Florida will be able to work down its huge deficit.

In Indianapolis, Indiana executives of two Indian gambling sits are holding long and protracted meetings. The reason is that the two tribes are trying to maximize their revenue and increase the tax dollars flowing fro their establishments. Tom Dingman, General Manager of Evansville’s Casino Aztar, stated, “I think the state is really trying to figure out how it is going to remain competitive. What is good for the gaming industry as a whole is going to be good for the state.”

Dingman is reflecting what the state believes also. Indiana is hoping to bring more money into the coffer through expanded gambling. They are trying to also brainstorm ways for the two tribes to expand their current casinos without extending themselves financially too far.  Dingman added, “It is a careful balance we are striving to reach here…we want to expand and allow for better gaming and bigger promotions, but we have limits.  We have to stay within a specific budget or the entire plan is a failure for the tribal communities.”

Jim Landers, the committee’s nonpartisan Fiscal Analyst stated, “Tax revenue from Indiana’s 11 casinos and two hybrid ‘racinos’ — or horse tracks with casinos — likely will remain flat or perhaps even dip slightly over the next two years.” The committee is hoping to come up with ways to minimize that dip or at least mitigate it.

Between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009, Indiana collected about $819 million in gambling taxes. That marked a further slowdown in tax revenue growth from the industry as numbers were down from the previous year substantially. Without some serious reworking of the system, the state is in dire trouble financially. The deficits are huge and the money projected to be brought in needs to be stretched thin to cover all the expense the state has. If the revenues from slots parlors fall to too low a dip, this could be disastrous. The money is already earmarked and worked in to the 2010/2011 budget.  It is supposed to be spread over education, public works programs and development of government facilities. Without it, those things will all stagnate and further cutbacks will be necessary.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a US federal law that spells out the framework Indian gaming operations. The full purpose was to “provide a legislative basis for the operation and regulation of Indian gaming, protect gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encourage economic development of the tribal coffers and protect the enterprises from negative influences, such as organized crime.” One additional result of the act was the classification of slots machine games. There are now two classifications—Class II and Class III. There are not Class I slots because the Class system is focused on how gambling games are classified, rather than on the specific number of classes.

Class I gaming actually is not the kind of gaming that is in casinos. It is the most traditional type of gambling and associated with social gaming played for very low wagers and small prizes. Normally this type of gaming has nothing to do with slots gaming.  On the other hand, there is Class II gaming. In this class slot machines are directly involved. Bingo and pull tab are the sorts of games of chance that are considered Class II games.  A Class II slot machine operates very similar to a game of bingo in that the central processing unit of the machine draws bingo numbers at random.  The machine then covers the appropriate spots on an electronic bingo card as it applies to the drawn number.  The result of the spin on Class II slot machines depends on the outcome of the card.  Although these games are very similar to bingo tribal casinos prefer to offer slot machines over bingo because they have always generated more revenue than bingo.

Finally, the Class III slot machines are the ones most common in the industry. These are the same games you find in any Las Vegas or Atlantic City casino. The games operate on a random number generator, or RNG, and that dictates where the reels fall, and what payout, if any, is received.

In the end the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was a method created to protect and direct tribal gaming. In the same way a method of overall direction needs to be put into place to protect and direct slots and gambling for the general market.

Seneca Gaming Corporation, or SGC, was established in 2002 by the Seneca Nation of Indians.  The purpose of the corporation is to develop, construct, lease, operate, manage, maintain, promote and finance all of the Seneca nation’s gaming facilities. Over the years the Nation has built itself up as one of the premiere names in the world of slots parlors and gambling casinos. Unfortunately due to the economy, the SGC is seeing a decline in revenues.  Add to the problem the shift of many slots players to the online forum of slots play, and that leaves the Nation in serious financial peril.

As a response to the difficulties, the SGC announced recently that it will be adding to its temporary casino located in Buffalo’s Cobblestone District.  The addition will make room for a 5,300 square food slots parlor that holds between 200-250 additional machines. When construction is completed, the SGC hopes to have a total of about 450 slots set up in the area. The SGC is looking to have the area finished by next spring and anticipates spending $8 million for its construction.

The good news for the area is that the move to create a temporary casino site should create some new jobs for the locals, in addition to bringing in more revenue to the tribe. The tribe is trying to focus on these additional positives in hopes to gain more public support over the move.  The temporary slots expansion is potentially a way to defray the loss in revenue due to the halting of work on the permanent casino.  There is a $333 million facility, which includes a slots parlor and hotel that was suspended this summer. The move has left the worksite barren and the Seneca Gaming Corporation has not yet decided what to do with the facility or when to start working on it again.

Opponents to the slots casino are claiming that the land purchased by the Seneca Gaming Corporation is not eligible to qualify for sovereign territory. They want the building halted indefinitely. The Seneca Tribe is hoping to work out the issue and hoping the temporary slots parlor is able to defray what they are losing in revenue from the permanent casino.  If they can spur more gambling and increase revenue, they may be able to reach a break even point with their budgets. That has not happened since the recession began just-over one year ago.