[PEN-L:32900] Indian gambling casinos

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Time Magazine has a cover story on Indian gambling casinos this week. 
While it contains useful information on how poor Indians are gaining 
nothing, I suspect the real purpose of the article is to tarnish the 
image of indigenous America as a corrupt internal 3rd world colony upon 
which all assistance would be wasted.)

Imagine, if you will, Congress passing a bill to make Indian tribes more 
self-sufficient that gives billions of dollars to the white backers of 
Indian businesses—and nothing to hundreds of thousands of Native 
Americans living in poverty. Or a bill that gives hundreds of millions 
of dollars to one Indian tribe with a few dozen members—and not a penny 
to a tribe with hundreds of thousands of members. Or a bill that allows 
select Indian tribes to create businesses that reap millions of dollars 
in profits and pay no federal income tax—at the same time that the 
tribes collect millions in aid from American taxpayers. Can't imagine 
Congress passing such a bill? It did. Here's how it happened—and what it 
means.

(clip)

THE WHITE MAN WINS AGAIN. While most Indians continue to live in 
poverty, many non-Indian investors are extracting hundreds of millions 
of dollars—sometimes in violation of legal limits—from casinos they 
helped establish, either by taking advantage of regulatory loopholes or 
cutting backroom deals. More than 90% of the contracts between tribes 
and outside gaming-management companies operate with no oversight. That 
means investors' identities are often secret, as are their financial 
arrangements and their share of the revenue. Whatever else Congress had 
in mind when it passed the regulatory act, presumably the idea was not 
to line the pockets of a Malaysian gambling magnate, a South African 
millionaire or a Minnesota leather-apparel king.

full: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021216/story.html

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