Betting on Education: The Impact of Tribal Gaming on LocalSchool Districts

The relationship between Native American gaming and education across the United States has largely been unexplored nationally. Given the controversy surrounding the rapidly growing Native American gaming industry, and the large gaps in Native American educational achievement (when compared to the general population and other minority groups), it is essential to understand the impact that casinos have on education. In this thesis, I ask: Does the presence of casinos on reservations impact the educational outcomes, such as district revenue, test scores, and dropout rates, in the districts surrounding those operations? I employ a basic Stacked difference-in-differences model and a Stacked difference-in-differences model accounts for varying effects over time to determine the impact that tribal gaming has on a number of public school district revenue measures and 3rd-8th grade math and reading and language arts test scores and high school dropout rates for all public school students. I find that there are increases in total revenue that largely stem from increases in local revenue. Additionally, I find weakly positive improvements in test scores. Finally, I find weakly significant reductions in high school dropout rates as a result of casino presence.