Tribes Wary Of Gambling Commission Representatives Hope To Set Record Straight

Inland Northwest tribal representatives will be wary Thursday when they speak before a national gambling commission near Seattle.

“We are concerned that Indian gaming will get trashed,” said John McCoy, Tulalip tribal spokesman.

“We are concerned because there are some very extreme conservatives on the commission and one person from the Nevada gaming industry,” he said.

For the past two years, the nine-member National Gambling Impact Study Commission has gathered information on a huge range of gambling issues in the United States. The commission - created by Congress - will issue a report and recommendations to the president and Congress in June.

This week, a three-member subcommittee on Indian gaming will hold its final hearing in SeaTac near Seattle. Tribal representatives from across the nation are expected to attend the daylong event.

McCoy and other tribal representatives are worried the commission might make unfair, uneducated or unwarranted recommendations to Congress in its report.

“Nationwide, there is a tremendous amount of negative publicity that surrounds the regulatory control over Indian casinos,” said Jerry Allen, co-chair of the Northwest Alliance of Gaming Tribes. “We have to try and dispel some myths regarding Indian gaming.”

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe has run a very successful casino under existing federal laws, said Laura Stensgar, marketing director for the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Casino.

“With any changes, we’d have to adjust and modify - and we’ve learned through experience that they take things away,” Stensgar said.

Stensgar and Joe Pakootas, chairman of the business council for the Colville Confederated Tribes, will be among the Indians testifying Thursday.

Also testifying will be state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle. Prentice is a member of the Washington State Gambling Commission and one of the legislators most knowledgeable about gambling.

“My understanding is there have been many doubts, particularly from Nevada, saying tribal gaming is not regulated - and of course we know that is not the case in our state,” Prentice said. “We want to make sure the commission has an accurate picture of what is going on in Washington.”

Elected to the Legislature the same year the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed into law, Prentice has followed the state’s tribal casinos closely, she said.

“I’ve looked at many and been impressed with the regulation. As time has gone on, it has gotten better and better,” she said.

According to Allen, tribal casinos in Washington state have far more regulatory oversight than their non-tribal cousins, the blackjack minicasinos.

One of the most vocal congressional critics of Indian gaming is from the heart of non-Indian gaming country. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has proven to be a thorn in the side of Indian gaming during the commission’s two-year run.

“Sen. Reid says we are unregulated,” McCoy said. “We spend over $1 million a year in this tribe alone on regulation. We are regulated by our own regulatory agency, the state and the National Indian Gaming Commission. So we take great exception to his comments.”

1. ONLINE More information on the National Gambling Impact Study Commission can be found at its Web site at www.ngisc.gov.

2. HEARING The hearing will be from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the DoubleTree Hotel, 18740 Pacific Highway South, SeaTac, Wash. It is open to the public.