Indian gaming faces changing landscape
Oklahoma' s 31 gaming Indian tribes may feel secure in their position concerning state gaming compacts, but political strategist Tyler Powell offered a chilling word of warning to them Wednesday.
“The folks that passed the stuff that enabled gaming in this state ... are no longer in the Legislature. They're all gone,” Powell said during a discussion at the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association convention at Cox Business Center.
Not only are they gone, but most of the people who succeeded them are, too. Powell said the huge turnover in not only the Legislature but state government in general has created a “where's my office” situation at the Capitol.
“I' ve never seen a group question the decisions of the past like this one,” Powell said.
That means the tribes have a big sales job convincing lawmakers, Gov. Kevin St it ta nd highly placed advisers that the current compact is a good deal for Oklahoma.
Stitt and many others believe the state should be getting more than the $147 million in exclusivity fees paid by the tribes last year. Earlier this month, Stitt notified the tribes he intends to renegotiate those fees and the entire model compact used for all tribal gaming in the state.
“We used to focus all of our energy on the federal government,” said Matt Morgan, OIGA chairman and director of gaming affairs for the Chickasaw
Nation. “That's where we created relationships, that' s who we visited. The federal government is important, but ... the state government is just as important.
“There is no greater impact on your everyday lives than local elections. That's city, county and state,” Morgan said.
Powell recommended tribal members get to know their legislators and explain Indian Country issues, including gaming. He also advised them that means directing more of their attention to Republican lawmakers, because he sees the GOP supermajorities in the Legislature growing as a result of the 2020 elections, particularly in the House.
Furthermore, he said, few if any nonmetro area Democrats will remain after 2020,
meaning the tribes will be primarily represented in the Legislature by Republicans, and working with a Republican governor who seems intent on re negotiating tribal gaming compacts.
With that in mind, Morgan and Tulsa attorney Dean Luthey discussed ways to frame the tribe's messaging to lawmakers and the public.
Tuesday, Morgan noted that Oklahoma' s tribes employ more than 95,000 people, of whom 75,000 work in the gaming sector, and that most of those jobs are in rural parts of the state.
At Wednesday's presentation, Morgan said the state's income from tribal exclusivity fees has far exceeded expectations, and per capita revenue from the fees is the highest in the United States.
He said most tribal gaming revenue winds up invested in local economies, schools and infrastructure, and asked, “If those dollars are rerouted to the state, will they come back?”
Luthey noted that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 limit show gaming proceeds can be spent, and said Oklahoma tribes generally de vote their earnings to such areas as housing, health care, education, water and sewer projects, law enforcement, and roads.
“Every dollar that tribal governmental gaming generates and is used for those ... purposes is a dollar that local government, state government and federal government doesn't need to spend — and in many cases wouldn't have been spent by those other governments,” Luthey said.