The History of Minnesota Casinos
Minnesota, "Land of 10,000 Lakes," epitomizes wholesome outdoor recreation, from swimming and fishing to hunting and hiking. But in 1976, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in an utterly unrelated Minnesota case, paved the way for Indian gaming. It took time, and another high court ruling, but casinos took their place alongside campsites and canoes as state recreation symbols. By 1992 Minnesota was, in the words of a state report, “the largest casino gaming center between Nevada and New Jersey.” This is how it happened.
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Indian Sovereignty
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The court’s 1976 decision, Bryan v. Itasca County, not only dismissed Minnesota’s attempt to collect property taxes on a reservation, but also ruled out any state regulation of noncriminal matters on Indian land. Since Minnesota did not outlaw bingo gambling—allowing it, for example, as a church fundraising tool—it could not forbid the games on Indian land or regulate things like jackpot sizes.
Bingo!
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Not surprisingly, by the early ’80s Minnesota had its first Indian bingo parlors, attracting non-Indian crowds with promises of paydays no parish hall had a prayer of matching. One enterprising tribe, the Fond du Lac Chippewas, even left the reservation, negotiating in 1986 with Duluth’s city fathers to install a downtown bingo operation in the shell of a onetime department store. A half century after its invention, bingo was everywhere, wildly popular—and ripe for expansion.
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Video Variants
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At least 14 bingo parlors were drawing players to Minnesota’s reservations (and department store) by 1987, but change had already begun. Almost before its doors opened, the department store had swapped traditional bingo pasteboards for video screens. Video also enabled alternative action. By midyear, the Mdewakanton Sioux near Prior Lake and the Sioux of Red Wing had video poker and slots. Elsewhere, electronic craps, blackjack and roulette came packaged as (wink, wink) “bingo variants.”
Turning Point
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Not all of officialdom was convinced that the Indians’ burgeoning gaming enterprise could survive a court challenge. So, when California sought to overturn the Indian reservations’ exemption from state regulation, many expected the Supreme Court to rein in gambling’s advances. But, ruling in California v. Cabazon (February 1987), the court not only upheld the Indians’ bingo exemption, but also extended it to any other form of gambling not specifically outlawed by the state.
Vegas Style?
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A year after Cabazon, the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 codified three classes of reservation gambling. In Class I, tribes controlled traditional ceremonial and social games. In Class II, federally reviewed tribal laws governed friendly contests like bingo, keno and player-vs.-player card games. Class III, however, allowed big-league casino action, including chemin de fer, baccarat and blackjack as well as roulette, craps, slots and video poker. Tribal/state compacts would govern this class.
Mostly Slots
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With an eye on potential job creation, Minnesota signed accords with its first seven Indian tribes by October 1989. The compacts shunned most "live" gambling, limiting Indian casinos to video games of chance (slots) and blackjack. They also controlled things like casino hiring and spelled out how the state and tribe would share regulatory and criminal authority. Before year’s end 1991, all of the state's 11 gaming tribes had agreed to compacts.
More Casinos
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Casinos, as well as jobs for rural Minnesota, came quickly. Aided by deals with casino development and management companies, Minnesota's Indians by 1992 could count 14 casinos with more than 9,200 video slots and blackjack games with limits of up to $500. Despite the lack of Vegas-style games like craps and roulette, the casinos have grown now to 18, according to the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.
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References
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- Photo Credit gambling image by Vladimirs Koskins from Fotolia.com
