Study shows financial benefit from Indian casinos

By MICHELLE DEARMOND
The Press-Enterprise
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Families living near California Indian casinos enjoyed a greater rise in income than people residing far from gambling reservations, according to a study released Tuesday.

The UC Riverside analysis of 1990 and 2000 census data found income levels for families living within 10 miles of reservations with Indian casinos rose 55 percent in that decade. The median income for families not living within 10 miles of a gambling reservation rose 33 percent during that period.

"This study has shown that tribal gaming in California has improved social and economic outcomes on tribal lands and in surrounding areas," researchers wrote in the report. "Benefits include significant increases in incomes and educational attainment and reductions in poverty, especially in the poorest regions of the state."

The researchers also said that Indian casinos increased employment and reduced dependence on welfare on reservations and surrounding areas. Many reservations are in poorer regions of the state that need economic development, according to the report.

UC Riverside's Center for California Native Nations released the latest piece of its statewide study Tuesday, a year and a half after offering its first detailed look at the effects of tribal gambling in California. The center is studying the social and economic effects by reviewing census data, state reports and other sources of information.

Today's report looks primarily at the impact of gambling between 1990 and 2000, a decade when a number of California tribes ran gambling operations without the state-tribal gambling agreements required under federal law. Voters in 2000 approved Las Vegas-style gambling on Indian casinos, and the growth since then has been dramatic. There were 39 Indian casinos and 20,684 Las Vegas-style slot machines in California in 2000; there were 55 casinos and 58,721 slot machines by 2005, according to the report.

The report did not break down the effects of Indian gambling by region in the state but did calculate the growth of gambling in all the counties with Indian casinos.

The report can be found at policymatters.ucr.edu/press. The study is funded by the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, which runs the Pechanga Resort & Casino near Temecula, and the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, a statewide coalition of tribes.

Reach Michelle DeArmond at mdearmond(at)PE.com