Sovereignty Games: Tribal Gaming Regulation in the Contemporary United States

Native American sovereignty has been constantly threatened throughout the history of the United States, but now they are not being threatened in ways that we are used to. In the past sovereignty of Native Americans has been taken through outright violence, but now it is being taken through much more discreet means. Since the creation of Native American reservations they have been treated as sovereign nations that can set their own rules and regulations. This has been the precedent for gambling regulations as well, but the states didn’t like that they didn’t have control over gambling operations in their borders. States have operated very differently in terms of gambling regulation; the restrictiveness of each state varies depending on what state you look at. My study asked: what explains variation in how states regulate tribal gaming? For my research I conducted a comparative case study of two states in the United States that are similar geographically and culturally, but differ in the approaches they have taken on tribal gaming regulation. The dependent variable in my research was the restrictiveness of implementation of tribal-state gaming compacts. I found that economic incentives, political coalitions, and partisan composition of the state legislatures all influence state approaches to tribal sovereignty in the realm of gaming.