The California Nations Indian Gaming Association is holding its annual conference this week in Palm Springs, where members plan to talk about upcoming legislation and a new study on the impacts of tribal gaming in California. The 11th Western Indian Gaming Conference began yesterday with a golf tournament in Indio to be followed by two days of panel discussions and trade-show exhibits at the Wyndham Hotel and the adjacent Palm Springs Convention Center. Tribal members and gaming-industry representatives will attend, but the event is open to the public as well.

UC Riverside researchers also plan to release a study of California Indian gaming and its effects on tribal and local governments. The study by the Center for California Native Nations is scheduled to be released Wednesday afternoon. The release will come after a morning of panel discussions and an opening talk on the "State of the Tribal Nations." The UC Riverside team included economists, anthropologists, political scientists and other researchers, who studied 1990 and 2000 U.S. census data and tribal and local government data. They also conducted interviews to study gaming's social and economic impacts.

Joel Martin, interim dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, said: "This research is the first ever conducted that provides an interdisciplinary and detailed assessment of the effects of Indian gaming on a tribe, on their surrounding neighbors and on the state of California. Policymakers have consistently asked for this kind of study, and now they will have it."

The study offers details on the growth of Indian gaming in the 1990s, when tribes were fighting with state and federal officials about casinos. California voters approved Las Vegas-style gambling for tribes in 2000, and Indian gaming has grown dramatically there since then. The Inland area now has 10 casinos, which attract customers from all over Southern California. Tribal representatives from across the state are expected at the conference, which ends Friday with a private meeting of association members. The association includes more than 50 gaming and non-gaming tribes. (E-01.10.06)

© Copyright 2006 CasinoCompendium



>>> return to archives
>>> return to frontpage