With the state of Minnesota considering adding racinos and a possible commercial casino in Minneapolis, the state’s tribes have plenty to lose and nothing to gain. While other states have arranged to share the wealth from Native American gaming operations, none of Minnesota’s 22 separate gambling compacts with its 11 Indian tribes requires Indian-owned gambling operations to provide any revenue or other benefits to the state. And to make matters worse, Minnesota’s compacts contain no provisions for renegotiation, ever.
Sources estimate new compacts could provide the state treasury with $400 million to $1 billion in much-needed biennial revenues. But over the years, countless attempts to change the compacts have failed. Most recently, in the 2011 legislative session—with a new Republican majority, a gambling-friendly governor and a multibillion-dollar budget deficit—gaming proponents saw an opportunity to break the tribal hold on the industry. But by the end of the session, the compacts remained intact with no changes in sight.
John McCarthy, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, said, “Part of the problem is that compacts were negotiated in total good faith by both parties, and lo and behold, the tribes made a huge success out of the business, and, gee, that kind of surprised people.” McCarthy was involved in negotiating the original compacts with then-Governor Rudy Perpich. Back then, he said, “The term ‘revenue-sharing’ never came up.”
For the compacts to change, the tribes and the state must willingly come to the negotiating table. “There is no appetite for that on our side,” McCarthy said. “The tribes have always been interested in sitting down with the state in a civil manner to talk about ways we could work together on things that are beneficial to both groups, but we’ve always run into the gun-to-the-head approach. There has never been a partnership attitude.”
The state could proceed with expanding gambling, and prepare to fight the legal battles that would result. Other obstacles would be political party divisions in the legislature and powerful lobbyists.
In the past, politicians also have attempted to exploit relationships between the state’s richer and poorer tribes. Today, the tribes appear to present a united front, partially due to an increased amount of cross-tribal financial aid from tribes that have prospered from casinos.
