TEMECULA, CA – Tribal leaders, regulators, industry professionals and policy experts gathered at the 28th annual Western Indian Gaming Conference (WIGC) at Pechanga Resort Casino for a series of speeches, workshops, and an expanded tradeshow. This year’s State of the Tribal Nations was delivered by CNIGA Chairman James Siva.
In the address, Chairman Siva highlighted a new economic study on tribal government gaming’s economic impacts from Beacon Economics. Among the findings – in 2021, expenditures from tribal gaming operations in California generated approximately $17.2 billion in economic output, which currently supports 85,200 jobs statewide. That jobs number is up from 56,000 in 2012.
Chairman Siva touted CNIGA’s legislative accomplishments in the past year, including successful legislation allowing tribes in state court to sue commercial cardrooms for offering illegal games, and to stop excessive payments into the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund. In the address, Chairman Siva also updated members on efforts to increase payments to tribes who receive monies from the Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (RSTF). The efforts have culminated in new legislation this year, AB 221, authored by Assemblymember James Ramos, which disburses funds from the Tribal Nations Grant Fund (TNGF), which is funded by the RSTF and disburses funds to eligible non-gaming and limited gaming tribes.
He also warned tribes of continued threats from a wide variety of sources from commercial sources such as an increase of commercial gaming relating to daily fantasy sports, sweepstakes, peer-to-peer wagering, crypto casinos and more. Chairman Siva urged tribes to stay vigilant against these threats.
“There is nobody better to protect tribal gaming rights than tribes themselves,” said Siva. “Don’t be fooled. These commercial operators don’t care about the long-term success of our governments; they care about their out of state balance sheets. Tribal governments are working diligently and thoughtfully, and we will move forward with a sports wagering initiative when the time is right. “
Following the State of Tribal Nations and echoing Chairman Siva’s warnings of multiple commercial threats to tribal gaming, a series of panel discussions was hosted by Victor Rocha, founder and editor of Pechanga.net. The panels focused on various threats to tribal government gaming, characterizing commercial gaming actions as “the biggest threat to Indian gaming in my lifetime… the threats are coming from all directions.” Rocha moderated panels that examined the various threats posed by sweepstakes casinos, daily fantasy sports, crypto casinos and illegal gaming at commercial cardrooms.
In addition to the general session, the conference features various seminars and workshops focusing on tribal governmental issues, casino operations and security, regulation, finance, and also a series that, with state bar approval, counts toward the 25 hours of minimum continuing legal education requirements (MCLE) that the State of California requires of attorneys to complete every three years.
