Two decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the doors for Indian tribes to operate casinos, and the benefits have been impressive. Many tribes have converted the public’s appetite for betting into a reliable revenue stream to address the socioeconomic needs of disadvantaged people.

Tribal gambling income differs from that in the profit-driven private sector. It is the equivalent of a tax base to pay for services a sovereign entity provides to its constituency. For that reason, the 1988 Indian Regulatory Gaming Act has been a success that must be preserved. Still, there needs to be limits.

The federal law allowed tribes and states to enter compacts so the tribes could operate casinos on lands held in trust for them in 1988. Only under a narrow set of conditions could they open casinos on lands they obtained after that date.

After 19 years, Northern Quest Casino, operated at Airway Heights by the Kalispel Tribe, is one of only three off-reservation casinos in the nation. That was due largely to the hostile topography on the Kalispel Reservation and a shortage of suitable water.

At present, however, about 30 tribes have proposals in the pipeline to build casinos on land off their reservations – and not because their land suffers the kind of challenges that hampered the Kalispels. Such an expansion of gambling would pose social problems serious enough to offset the benefits tribes have gained.

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs recently warned in a letter to the Warm Springs Tribe in Oregon that approval for off-reservation casinos is going to become harder to get. If that prediction holds up, it’s welcome news, but it appears to be based on political circumstances that are in flux.

The letter cites congressional efforts to clamp down on tribal casinos, but that came primarily from Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who was defeated and whose party lost control of Congress. Moreover, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ cautionary letter to the Warm Springs is said to reflect the feelings of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, whose tenure will probably end when President Bush’s does.

Meanwhile, considerable wealth and momentum are working in favor of a radical expansion of tribal gambling. The Mohegans of Connecticut – whose mammoth Mohegan Sun is set for a $750 million expansion – are bankrolling several other casino proposals around the country. One would give the Cowlitz Tribe in southwest Washington one of the largest casinos in the country. The Mohegans even have their eyes on properties in the Caribbean.

The Kalispels were able to open Northern Quest because the law contained an exception to compensate them for an unavoidable disadvantage. Congress and others who share in the oversight role for tribal casinos, should keep it from being stretched into a loophole.