Something to watch for is that I fear there is a coming legal battle that will challenge Tribal institutions in the US in a way that undermines the use of Native run casinos. There are some things happening in Oregon that, contextualized with past legal efforts, makes me think Tribal run casinos and really Tribal institutions in general will be challenged on the grounds of racism and monopoly (only Indigenous Tribes can have casinos). There is a super-rich fucker that is trying to bring back horse racing or some shit and he needs slot machines (but like they totally aren’t slot machines because that would be illegal) on location to make it break even. So the local Tribes are trying to put legal pressure against this because it will have a major impact on certain casinos, but I fear that it is a trap that is meant to set up a legal challenge to current laws.

Casino money is vital to reservation political economy and it also offers an alternative to more extractive efforts like timber or natural gas extraction. So while casinos are not necessarily an end all solution the loss of casino revenue would be unfathomably bad for communities that are really just starting to build a new era of revitalization.