Tribal Casinos: Promoting Opportunity and Economic Development Both on and Off Reservations

In the past, American Indians living on tribal territory have experienced some of the worst economic circumstances in the country.

In 1989, the percentage of American Indians living in poverty was 31%, which was significantly higher than the 13% national poverty rate at the time.

According to joint U.S. Census Bureau and university research, the growth of tribal casinos that started in the 1990s helped improve economic conditions for American Indians more quickly than for the U.S. population as a whole. However, there is still work to be done; according to Census Bureau data, the American Indian poverty rate was 19.6% in 2024, higher than the national average of 12.1%.

ALSO READ: Workers demand union recognition at Wilton Rancheria’s Sky River Casino.

The American Indian gaming business has made over $40 billion a year in recent years.

In a working paper, Maggie R. Jones from the Census Bureau, Randall Akee from the Census Bureau and the University of California, Los Angeles, and Emilia Simeonova from Johns Hopkins University used census data to assess the economic impact of tribal casinos on surrounding individuals and locations at the ZIP-code level.

The Casino Economy

The number of U.S. census tracts containing an American Indian tribal casino operation increased from almost zero in 1989 to almost 600 by 2019 following the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) by Congress in 1988 (Figure 1).

Courtesy: https://www.covers.com, https://www.casino.org, https://pechanga.net