Creating Strong Economies. Empowering Indian Communities.

Reid sounds pessimistic note on poker bill

By Steve Tetreault
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Posted: Dec. 11, 2012 | 4:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sounded a pessimistic note Tuesday on chances to pass an online poker bill in the handful of days remaining in Congress this year.

The Nevada Democrat said that even with support, there might not be a path available for the legislation that would legalize Internet poker and initiate federal licensing for companies that want to run the games.

His comments came as key Senate Republicans, including Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said they believed they have lined up enough votes to help advance the bill.

“Senator Heller believes there are sufficient Republican votes, and Senator Kyl agrees,” Heller spokeswoman Chandler Smith said.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has been co-sponsor with Reid of a draft bill that has been circulated around Capitol Hill and among casinos and other interest groups, but not formally introduced.

In a Congressional Quarterly interview, Kyl said there are sufficient Republican votes to help move the poker bill. But he warned against trying to add it onto the “fiscal cliff” bill or other bills that may end up in a partisan divide.

“If it ever comes up in the Senate, and it’s offered in the appropriate way — that is to say not part of some bill that nobody is going to vote for — then there’s no question about Republican votes in my view,” Kyl said.

Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said Kyl and Reid met on Monday. She said Reid was told that Kyl was continuing to seek Republican votes for the bill but was not told how many might be in hand or under what conditions.

Reid has complained regularly about lack of Republican votes for the poker bill. On Tuesday, he was asked about new reports of GOP support for the draft bill that has languished for most of the year.

Asked about the bill’s prospects at this point, Reid threw up his hands and questioned whether there was a suitable bill for it to be attached as an amendment.

“Everyone, listen to this,” he said. “We suddenly have Republican votes on Internet poker, two weeks before Christmas. Without being vulgar, what the hell would I put it on?”

Reid stopped short of declaring the bill dead for the year, and the frenetic final days of a congressional session sometimes are marked by deal-cutting that results in some bills being passed and some bills being killed.

The online poker bill is seen as a top priority of Nevada casinos that have been preparing to enter the online gaming market. The Nevada Gaming Commission has granted interactive gaming licenses to 16 companies, and the state is expected to play a big role in carrying out any federal online poker regime.

At the same time it legalizes Web poker, the bill also would make most all other forms of online gambling illegal.

Obama promises continuing partnership with tribal leaders

Written by Malia Rulon Herman Tribune Washington Bureau

Dec. 05

greatfallstribune.com

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama promised Native American leaders Wednesday he will “keep working together” with them, and outlined policy changes across his administration that Native Americans have long sought.

Federal officials will pay the medical bills of American Indians who have served in the armed forces, and tribes won’t have to pay taxes on aid to their members, administration officials said.

The White House also announced millions of dollars in new transportation grants and new programs to help schools on reservations.

“But we’ve got more work to do,” Obama said at the daylong White House Tribal Nations Conference. “We’ve got to rebuild America’s infrastructure — from roads to high-speed Internet — that will help connect native communities to other parts of the country and other parts of the world.”

Representatives from the 566 federally recognized tribes were invited to the summit, which featured discussion panels with Cabinet secretaries, federal lawmakers and the heads of agencies that deal with Indian issues. Topics included law enforcement, disaster relief, education, economics, housing, energy and infrastructure.

The summit comes as tribal leaders worry about how the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of spending cuts and tax increases set to hit Jan. 1, would affect the federal government’s trust obligations and investments in other services affecting tribes.

They said they felt comforted by the president’s remarks on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s gathering “should send a loud and clear message to everyone that Barack Obama understands the importance of Indian Country and is committed to making sure we continue to make progress,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who kicked off the summit.

Tribal representatives couldn’t agree more.

“I’m glad that we finally got a president who stands up for Indian people,” said a beaming Kevin Bonds of the Tule River Yokuts in California.

Montana state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, of the Chippewa Cree, who wasn’t able to make this year’s conference, said Obama “has done more for Indian Country than any of his predecessors put together.”

“We have a long ways to go, but at least the announcements that have been made for today show that we are moving in the right direction,” he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the Veterans Affairs Department will reimburse the Indian Health Service for treatment of Native American veterans.

“This agreement will make it easier for tribes to enter their own agreements with VA for the health services they provide,” she said.

Robert Shepherd of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe in South Dakota said that’s a “huge deal” for his tribe, which has many veterans.

Also at the summit, Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin announced proposed guidance on excluding from income tax certain benefits that tribal businesses provide to members, such as assistance with utility bills, tuition payments, school clothes and help for the elderly. Tribes had asked that the assistance be excluded.

“We’re a tribe who gives away a lot of money to our members,” said Jim Shakespeare of the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming. “It would devastate us if it was taxed.”

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the government would make $15.5 million in grants to 72 tribes to improve transit options in their communities. The money will be awarded through the Federal Transit Administration’s Tribal Transit Program to tribes in 25 states.

“You have a partner at DOT and we will work with you,” LaHood told tribal leaders.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told tribal leaders about strides his department has made in improving education and opportunities on reservations, such the School Improvement Grants, which he said have made a difference on the Crow Indian Reservation in Pryor.

“After receiving a $1.5 million grant, teachers and school leaders in Pryor elementary and middle schools have significantly boosted student achievement for native students,” he said. “Levels of reading proficiency have risen 15 percent, and levels of math proficiency doubled.”

Obama started his remarks Wednesday by paying tribute to the late Hartford “Sonny” Black Eagle Jr. of the Crow tribe in Montana, who adopted Obama during a traditional ceremony in the weeks leading up to the state’s 2008. Democratic primary.

Black Eagle, who died Nov. 26, would have been 79 this week.

“While we can’t celebrate that milestone with him today, we can celebrate his remarkable life and all that happened along the way, because Sonny’s story is not just one man’s journey to keep his culture alive, but one country’s journey to keep perfecting itself,” Obama said.

The first White House Tribal Nations Conference three years ago was the largest gathering of tribal leaders in history.

“Back then, an event like this was rare. Today, it’s gotten routine,” he said. pledging to continue working with tribal leaders on Indian issues.

Interest groups clash over online poker

By Peter Urban
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Posted: Dec. 5, 2012 | 2:51 p.m.

WASHINGTON – State lottery directors are urging Congress to block online gambling legislation that they say would unnecessarily steer money to Nevada.

Meanwhile Catholic activists and conservatives offered their support for the bill that would legalize online poker while banning other forms of Internet gambling.

Interest groups have heightened their lobbying efforts as the 112th Congress closes in on adjournment at the end of the year. Proponents hope – and opponents worry – that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will attach the bill to must-pass legislation during the lame-duck session.

No bill has been officially introduced, but Reid and Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., have drafted a version that surfaced publicly.

Seven lottery chiefs making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week are pointing to provisions in the draft bill that would effectively guarantee the Nevada Gaming Control Board licensing duties bringing the state about a quarter of all the “poker activity fees” set aside for state and federal governments.

“Only one state is currently set up to license poker operators and that state is Nevada,” said Mark Hichar, a lawyer speaking for the North American State and Provincial Lotteries.

The lottery chiefs are using that as a key argument in their discussions with lawmakers from their own states. They also argue that state lotteries are capable of regulating and managing online gaming without the need for federal intervention.

“Lotteries have a very high degree of social responsibility,” Kentucky Lottery President Arch Gleason said.

The lottery chiefs from Idaho, New Hampshire, Georgia, Washington, Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky have scheduled meetings with lawmakers from their states. None are meeting with Reid, Kyl or their staffs.

Kristen Orthman, a spokeswoman for Reid, downplayed the criticism of the online poker legislation.

“There is a lot of misunderstanding about the leaked bill, which is just a draft. Our door remains open to discussing the bill with anyone who would like to discuss,” Orthman said.

Meanwhile, Catholic Advocates joined with 60 Plus Association and American Majority Action to support the Reid-Kyl bill as a way to limit online gaming.

The organizations, which tend to be socially conservative, wrote letters to congressional leaders this week urging federal action to limit an impending “online gambling explosion” in 2013.

Several states have approved online gambling statutes since a Department of Justice ruling a year ago gave them the green light.

The department decided last year that the 1961 Wire Act, which bans wagering over telecommunications lines, applies only to sports betting.

“Federal restriction of online gambling is vital, urgent, and consistent with recent congressional intent. They legislation proposed by Senator Kyl and Senator Reid is a sensible solution,” they wrote.

The group has also set up a website – hrestrictonlinegambling.org – to generate grass-roots support for the bill. The American Gaming Association is also lobbying for passage of the Reid-Kyl bill.

“Congress must establish federal minimum standards that address consumer protection, prevent underage gambling, promote responsible gaming and provide help for those with gambling problems,” association President and CEO Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. said.

On Election Day, Rhode Island will roll the dice on table games

By Brian Hallenbeck

Voters will decide whether gambling can expand at slots parlors

For all the focus on Massachusetts’ embrace of casinos, it’s another neighboring state that poses a far more immediate threat to the Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.

Rhode Island voters will decide Tuesday whether to allow the Twin River and Newport Grand slots facilities in Lincoln and Newport to add “state-operated casino gaming, such as table games,” to the video lottery terminals and simulcast racing they now feature. In statewide and local balloting, voters could approve table games for one or both locations – or neither.

Many, including Twin River’s owners, are confident table games will fly.

“Overwhelmingly, people support the initiative,” said John Taylor, the Twin River chairman who’s been stumping in favor of table games for months. “Based on my travels, it’s maybe even stronger (than polls indicate).”

In a Brown University survey of 496 likely voters last month, 57.3 percent indicated they planned to approve Question 1, which would allow table games at Twin River, and 55.6 percent supported Question 2, which would allow table games at Newport Grand. The poll’s margin of error was 4.4 percent.

Gambling opponents concede the statewide ballot questions are likely to be approved, but they also believe binding local referendums on the ballots in Lincoln and Newport may not.

“We have a very good chance of beating it locally in Newport,” the Rev. Eugene McKenna, president of Citizens Concerned About Casino Gambling, said. “Mostly, we’re worried that if it passes, the state could move the casino downtown or into one of the mansions at some point. … We don’t think it’s good economic development.”

In Lincoln, John Cullen, a state Senate candidate, has spearheaded efforts to defeat the local referendum on table games, saying on his website that gambling “cannibalizes local businesses.”

Clyde Barrow, who studies gaming in New England as director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said local leaders in Lincoln and Newport have long opposed any expansion of gambling.

“It’s not so clear that it will pass at the local level,” he said.

Leveling the playing field

Massachusetts’ authorization last year of three destination resort casinos and a single slots-only facility upped the ante for Rhode Island, where Twin River and Newport Grand constitute the third-largest source of revenue for the state, behind income taxes and sales taxes. A study commissioned by the Rhode Island Department of Revenue determined that Massachusetts gaming facilities, which are not expected to materialize for several years, could cost Rhode Island $100 million or more in annual revenues.

“Competition is absolutely a factor, but this is also an opportunity to create jobs,” Taylor, the Twin River chairman, said. “Rhode Island has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country. … This is an opportunity to create 650 jobs.”

Twin River, which now employs 900 people, plans to hire, train and license 350 new employees if table games are approved, with another 300 jobs generated by vendors in the surrounding community who would do business with the facility, Taylor said.

The plan is to introduce 65 table games initially – they could be up and running by July 1 – and perhaps increase the number to more than 100 if demand warrants. The mix of games would include blackjack, roulette and craps, while poker is still under consideration, according to Taylor.

Table games would put Twin River on a par, at least gaming-wise, with Connecticut’s casinos.

“Clearly, this levels the playing field,” Taylor said.

He was quick to add, however, that Twin River would continue to operate at a significant tax disadvantage. In Connecticut, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun pay 25 percent of their gross slot-machine revenues to the state and pay no taxes on their table-games “win,” resulting in an effective tax rate of 18 percent. Twin River, which pays 62.5 percent of its slots revenue to the state, would pay an 18 percent tax on its table games for an effective rate of about 57 percent, Taylor said.

The addition of table games would not alter Twin River’s classification as a “convenience” casino, one that draws most of its customers from within a 30- to 40-mile radius.

“They’re not adding a hotel, a spa, a golf course or a big entertainment arena,” Barrow, the gaming analyst, said, referring to Twin River’s owners. “But their adding table games will have some impact on the competition. Rhode Islanders spend more than $200 million a year at the Connecticut casinos, about three-quarters of it at Foxwoods. They would clearly recapture some of that.”

‘We would still exist’

Top executives at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun said they’re ready for additional competition from Rhode Island.

“We anticipate it will pass and we’re prepared for it,” Scott Butera, Foxwoods’ president and chief executive officer, said of the table games initiative. “It introduces a new player in the market.”

Butera conceded Foxwoods would lose some convenience business to Twin River but stressed that the two properties offer different “experiences.”

“We’ll have to be as efficient as we can be with our marketing and find ways to replace the revenue that’s lost,” he said. “I don’t know if it changes anything; we’re already spending a lot of time on our other amenities, our retail, our food and beverage offerings …”

Bobby Soper, president and CEO of Mohegan Sun, presided over the 2010 introduction of table games at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, the Mohegan Tribe’s racetrack casino in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He said the expansion of gambling there increased revenues and enhanced the property’s competitiveness. In Pennsylvania, he said, slots revenues are taxed at 58 percent and table-games revenues at 14 percent.

Soper said the addition of table games at Twin River would have relatively little effect on Mohegan Sun.

“Our database shows the number of our customers who reside in the Rhode Island market is not that substantial,” he said. “We think the impact will be fairly modest.”

What if voters reject table games at Twin River?

“We’ve been successfully competing in the region, growing our business and getting our balance sheet in order and we’ll continue to do so,” Taylor said. “If this fails – and we don’t think it will – we would still exist as a business.”

Taylor noted that Twin River has increased its share of the New England slots market while posting year-over-year revenue gains in recent years. At the same time, slots revenues at the Connecticut casinos have declined precipitously. Over the last 18 to 24 months, Twin River has also benefited from a stronger relationship with the state of Rhode Island, which has provided it with marketing assistance, and a renewed emphasis on employee training, Taylor said.

“We think we’ve been doing the right things,” he said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Indian gaming revenues hit $1.8B in Arizona
Total up 5% from last year but below record 2B
October 29, 2012 11:38 PM
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BY HOWARD FISCHER – CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX — Maybe it’s the sign of a slightly improved economy.

Or maybe it’s just optimism.

But Arizona tribes took in nearly $1.8 billion last fiscal year even after paying off their winnings. And that’s the best since 2009.

“Gaming is essentially driven by people’s disposable income,” said state Gaming Director Mark Brnovich. “So the fact that we’re starting to see an increase and uptick I think is an indication that although the broader national economy may still be struggling, at least here in Arizona I think we’re seeing progress.”

That $1.8 billion figure represents gross gaming revenues. That’s what the tribes had left after they paid out in winnings, but before other expenses like payroll and utilities.

By law, the actual amount wagered in tribal casinos is confidential.

But the law also requires that at least 80 percent of the “handle” must go back out in winnings. That makes the tribes’ share, which amounts to 20 percent or less, the only public indication of how much Arizonans are pumping into gaming machines.

Revenues from individual tribes are not made public.

While the figure is up 5.1 percent from the same time a year earlier, a closer analysis shows that there may be less there than meets the eye.

First, the number is still far below the peak of nearly $2 billion reached four years ago, before the economic bubble deflated.

Second, the gross revenue figure is virtually identical to what tribes reported to the state in 2006.

But at that time there were just 12,795 gaming devices licensed to tribal casinos. Now there are 14,300 at 22 separate casinos.

Put another way, it took a 12 percent increase in opportunities to gamble just to stay even with what Arizonans were doing six years ago.

Brnovich said there are indications that tribes are realizing that they cannot rely simply on revenues from people plunking money into slot machines or wagering on card games. He said that’s why several have decided to expand the non-gaming side of their operations.

“We’re really seeing this trend towards not just a gambling facility but really a resort facility that has gambling as an element of it and also includes the restaurants and other amenities like spas and golf courses,” he said.

That’s been the experience at the Sol Casinos operated by the Pascua Yaqui tribe in Southern Arizona.

Wendell Long, the casinos’ chief executive officer, said the numbers reported to the state reflect only gaming revenues.

“Tribes are expanding their non-gaming revenues so they can still keep healthy revenues flowing to their tribal governments,” he said. And those numbers are not shared with the state.

In his own tribe’s case, Long cited the opening late last year of a new hotel and conference center. He said that not only helps short-term revenues but fits the tribe’s view of the bigger picture.

He pointed out that Congress has been weighing various measures which would allow individuals to legally gamble on the World Wide Web.

“We need to make sure we sell the entire experience to our patrons,” Long said, including a nice hotel room, fine adult beverages and good steaks. “Otherwise, if we’re just a slot house, then when Internet gaming comes — and it will eventually come — then we’re at a competitive disadvantage if people can just do it at their homes.”

More gaming at tribal casinos also helps the state.

Under the terms of a deal approved by voters in 2002, the tribes got exclusive right to operate casinos in the state. In exchange, they agreed to provide a share of the revenues to the state, on a sliding scale from 1 percent to 8 percent of gross revenues, depending on how much each takes in.

For the last budget year, revenue sharing totaled $84.9 million. That’s about $6 million more than the prior year.

Half of the funds go to public education, with another $21 million for trauma and emergency services. Tourism and wildlife conservation each get about $6 million.

Another nearly $1.7 million is set aside to help those who are “problem gamblers.” And the Department of Gaming keeps $8 million for its own regulatory expenses.

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