In recent years, various Indian tribes have turned to casino-type gambling operations as a way to generate revenues and to overcome the deep-seated unemployment facing many tribes. Various commentators have noted the sudden growth of legalized gambling on Indian reservations. This shift also can be considered a sign of the sweeping shift in public morality that is under way in virtually every municipality, Indian and non Indian, across the country as gambling has become an acceptable form of mass market entertainment. In 1992 Americans spent more on legal games of chance than on films, books, amusement attractions, and recorded music combined; in that same year Americans spent three times as much money at Indian gambling casinos as on movie tickets (Magnuson, 1994, 169). Some of the impetus for the growth in gambling on Indian reservations derives from the 1988 legislation known as the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), legislation which has recently come under fire from various critics who believe that Native Americans are being given an unfair advantage in developing gambling or who are opposed to gambling itself and see this legislation as immoral or as bad public policy. Reference can be made to the agreement between the Pequot Indians and Connecticut as an example. Under the Federal Indian Gaming Act, if any form of gambling is legal in a state, something similar must also be permitted on the lands of a recognized Indian tribe. In Connecticut, charities are allowed to run Las Vegas Nights with casino style gambling, and that means the Pequots can do the same 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at their casino, where each day up to 20,000 visitors arrive and spend their money (Server, 1993, 139). An examination of the issue will consider these criticisms as well as the reasons for the legislation and the effects that it has had.
The growth in gambling is seen at present as continuing into the near future, and accordin...