Indian gambling is an ill-disguised scam. Some so-called tribes have 30 people or less. They basically rent their names to Las Vegas casinos that run their gambling operations for as much as a 40 percent cut of the take. Gambling revenues are supposed to go to the welfare of the tribes, but any excess can be pocketed by individuals, thus enriching a lucky few. Across the country, outside casino interests have been involved in the invention of new tribes simply to provide more platforms for gambling.
Because the tribes are supposedly sovereign, they pay no taxes in California, so the state has gained nothing from the explosion of gambling. All that has happened is that tribes have been empowered to buy whatever they want. The San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians -- 67-members strong -- spent half a million dollars per member to pass the two California gambling propositions.
The ultimate answer to the Indian scam in California and elsewhere is to end the fiction of tribal sovereignty. If the tribes are sovereign nations, why are they allowed to interfere in American elections by contributing huge amounts of money? When another sovereign nation, like China, pours money into American politics, as it did in 2000, it's a national scandal and cause for an FBI investigation.
Sovereignty has not only allowed tribes to make an end run around laws against gambling, but has perpetuated arbitrary Third World-style government on reservations that makes it impossible for businesses to operate there. End tribal sovereignty, and perhaps Indians can begin to find less sketchy ways to make money than slot machines, and then our image of Indians can once again be something more noble.