NIGC Derelict In Its Fiduciary Responsibility to Individual American Indians

Good article in Indian Country Today.  Here are some excerpts.

h/t originalpechanga.com

Indian Country Today - NIGC Must Deter Gaming Per Capita Misuse

By Gabriel S. Galanda 3/1/16

It is easy to blame the Congress, the BIA,, and federal courts for allowing mass tribal disenrollment to flourish. They are all complicit.

But behind the scenes another federal entity plays a key role, especially in the increasing number of disenrollments tied to gaming per capitas: the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).

Over the last five years, the NIGC has shied away from regulating gaming per capita distributions, and by doing so emboldened a growing number of tribal politicians to disenroll their kin to increase income for those politicians’ allies.
#
More to the point, while the NIGC does not have authority over any tribe’s “enrollment decisions,” the agency does possess the statutory power—and indeed is mandated—to intercede in disenrollment-related gaming per capita misuse. 25 U.S.C. § 2702(2); 25 C.F.R. § 290.14(b). The Commission can and should regulate the money. Prior NIGC Chairmen understood that. The current Commission demurs.

#

The NIGC’s deference to an intra-tribal system of check and balance in that context, is derelict. So is the Commission when it comes to the trust responsibility it owes to every single enrolled member of gaming tribes.

By the admission of former NIGC Chairman Harold Monteau, the NIGC owes a “direct trust (fiduciary) responsibility to American Indians”—meaning not merely to tribal governments, but to tribal members, including those who face disenrollment.  (emph. added)

Read Full Article Here-->Indian Country Today - NIGC Must Deter Gaming Per Capita Misuse

Cross-Post How Tribal Leaders and Their Cohorts Can Steal Money From Tribal Members

This was posted at Original Pechanga Blog.  This is just an excerpt!  There's more here:  Full Article How Tribal Leaders and Their Cohorts Can Steal Money From Tribal Members

How Tribal Leaders and Their Cohorts Can Steal Money From Tribal Members

A first entry from guest blogger Free Range Indian is a piece on how tribal members can get bilked by tribal leaders and the gaming business entity for the tribe.  A primer of what can happen.

How do Tribal Leaders and Their Cohorts Steal So Much Money FROM YOU

First of all let us understand that even a trained monkey can run a casino. There is no genius involved. You put a machine in the middle of the floor. People put money in it. You collect the money. It is after the money is collected that the problem begins. One rule to remember here, Crooks go where the money is. It is very hard to be a thief when there is nothing to steal.

he first order of business is the development of policies that favor theft. Re-written constitutions and ordinances that only your attorney can understand and what they understand is that you have surrendered all you authority to them. Adoption of Management Agreements that are designed to get around the provisions of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) If there was ever a piece of legislation that legalized theft in Indian Country IGRA is it. IGRA is responsible for so many violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) because it does not provide for real oversight, investigative powers and authority or enforcement over Indian Gaming. By the time the attorneys and lobbyist were done with IGRA it was full on open season in Indian Country.
So let’s get down to the nitty gritty then. 

How does the theft occur?

Manipulation of definitions as to what Net Profit and Gross Profit mean are the first order of business. Any time you question what the net earnings were for your casino there is never a straight answer and you are deemed as stupid for not understanding the financial report. So you have an Indian Gaming Authority (IGA) approved Tribal Revenue Allocation Plan (TRAP). It is supposed to protect you from dishonesty and allow equitable distribution of revenues in a manner approved by the Tribe.

So which is it? Is your share of the profits from the net or the gross? In a perfect world all of the revenue earnings of the casino should be deposited with the tribe then the casino asks for an approved operating budget for monthly or quarterly operation of the casino. What is left is the net earning and it is from these net earnings that the TRAP funds are derived.

What is the real life situation? Some Tribal leaders allow the casino management to determine how much money is sent to the Tribe as net profit. If management was truly greedy they would just expense you out every month and you would receive nothing. But they know they can’t do this and get away with it for very long.

You alone are responsible for what comes next. Management, along with corrupt tribal leaders, gaming commissions and accountants begin a systematic testing of what makes you happy. How much money makes you happy. They start with a number that is low and will keep it there if you never challenge them. You know that according to your TRAP you are entitled to 40% of the net earnings. (40% as an example). The math is simple. If your casino has a net of $20,000,000 per month then your monthly per-capita should be $8,000,000 and then divided by the number of tribal members of the tribe. If there are 1,000 members in your tribe this should equal a payment of $8,000 per month. But you are only receiving $4,000 a month. What happened to the other $4,000? More realistic, what happened to the other $4,000,000?

What happens after you discover the discrepancy and how it is corrected is now your responsibility. This is where the lies and cover up begins. We have heard every excuse and reason imaginable as to why your per capita is not what it should be.

New construction is probably one of the easiest ways to manipulate casino revenues. Is your casino stuck in continuous construction, remodeling and upgrades? Do you really need it? The real question is why is the cost of construction coming out of your per capita when it should be coming out of economic development. Even more the question is who authorized the new construction and the source of funds?

 Full Article How Tribal Leaders and Their Cohorts Can Steal Money From Tribal Members

Santa Ysabel Goes Live With Online Bingo

Santa Ysabel Online Gambling Goes Live in California, But Not With Poker

November 4th, 2014 by Philip Conneller

The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, the go-it-alone tribal gaming operator that has vowed to launch a real-money online poker site whether California legalizes it or not, began offering real money online gaming this week. But it’s not poker, it’s bingo.

#

The tribe has made clear that it is interested only in poker and bingo.

“House-banked games and slot machines are defined as Class III games, and can only be offered in a tribal casino upon agreement with the state through a Tribal-State Gaming Compact,” it says on its website. “Santa Ysabel has had such a compact with the state since 2005, but has no plans to offer Class III gaming through its interactive website.”

Certainly, the tribe’s efforts to launch online poker in the California may depend on the success, or lack thereof, of the new bingo site and whether it receives legal challenges. And it’s likely that there will be legal challenges. The Iipays believe they have discovered a legal loophole in IGRA that defines bingo and poker as Class II gaming, but that assumes that bingo and poker are the same as online bingo and online poker, in a legal sense.

Read Full Article Here-->Santa Ysabel Online Gambling Goes Live in California, But Not With Poker

Tribal Gaming In The News

Couple of interesting articles on Tribal Gaming.

indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com ndian Gaming Reform: What Is Congress Plotting, and How Will SCIA Chair Jon Tester Respond?

By Rob Capriccioso 7/28/14

Excerpt:

Allegations of lies by a tribal government about an off-reservation casino, competing Indian interests in many states, flat earnings and the responsibility of regulators were all topics of discussion during the latter hearing, which was originally intended to showcase the success stories of IGRA and to seek out ways for more tribal victories.

Read Full Article Here ->indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com ndian Gaming Reform: What Is Congress Plotting, and How Will SCIA Chair Jon Tester Respond?

Also:

indianz.com NIGC reports 'stable' growth in $28B tribal gaming industry

Excerpt:

Tribal casinos took in $28 billion in revenues in 2013, the National Indian Gaming Commission reported on Monday.

The figure represents just a 0.5 percent gain in revenues from 2012. But NIGC officials said the industry has been growing steadily for the past four years after seeing a slump in 2009 during the national economic recession.

“In 2013, the Indian gaming industry saw the growth of its gross gaming revenues for the fourth consecutive year,” NIGC Vice Chair Jonodev Chaudhuri said in a press release. “This stable, positive trajectory underscores the ongoing significance of Indian gaming to larger tribal nation building and self-determination efforts.”

***WARNING*** 

Chairman Robert Smith, Chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, Pala Band of Luiseno Indians, Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pala Reservation, is monitoring your comments.  He is going to track your IP address and "take action" against any tribal member posting comments he does not like.