As popular as online casinos are nowadays, much of their success is owed to the origins and progress of physical casinos, particularly the first legalized native casinos in the United States. The history of native casinos is even more interesting than the history of online casinos because they’ve been around for decades longer.
It would take a massive book to go through all of the important details, so for the sake of brevity, we’ll give you the basics. Here’s a broad overview of the timeline of American native casinos.
The First Native Casino
Some people might assume that native casinos in the United States have been around for centuries, but the truth is that they’re a lot younger than they might seem. The very first native casino that opened on American land started as a high-stakes bingo hall formed and owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 1979, gradually branching out into additional classic casino table games.
Though the concept was quite new at the time, the Seminole Tribe casino ended up being very popular and successful. Within only a few years, many other native American tribes would start opening up their own casinos, including bingo, poker, blackjack, and other popular table and card games as their main focus.
Florida isn’t the only state known for having native casinos these days. States like California, Arizona, and Michigan also have their own native casinos. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their own selection of licensed online casinos, though. Michigan, in particular, has many great options that can be found at resources like askgamblers.com, with overviews of the best bonuses. There, you’ll find all of the most important info in one place so you don’t have to search around.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
Once native American casinos started to become popular all over the country, lawmakers decided it was time to step in and start placing regulations to make sure nothing got out of hand.
This resulted in the IGRA, or the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which was passed by Congress in 1988. By that point in time, there were already approximately 2000 native or tribal casinos in the United States. Rather than act as a way to slow development, the IGRA was designed to help promote further expansion and self-sufficiency of native American groups.
The federal Act also stated that if native Americans want to build a casino on designated reservations, the state must comply and help the tribes by providing state permits. This allowed casino owners to legally operate under certain conditions, such as only sticking to games of a certain nature. This usually meant bingo, slot machines, and popular card games.
What Makes Native Casinos Special?
From a customer’s perspective, there is not too much that makes a native casino run on reservation ground different from a standard casino in Las Vegas. What makes native casinos special is how they are run and how they are regulated. And, of course, in most instances, you will have to use a physical wallet, meaning real cash for your chips when attending one, as opposed to a digital software wallet for an online casino.
Native casinos can, at times, follow their own regulations. This is ultimately up to the state in question. As outlined by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and other federal laws, each US state can decide for themselves how strict they want to be in enforcing regulations for tribal and native casinos. Some states want their native casinos to be very by the books, while others are totally fine allowing their native casinos to look after themselves.
Perhaps the most notorious aspect of tribal and native casinos in the United States of America is how many of them operate in legal gray areas. For example, despite operating on sovereign ground, some states stipulate that native casinos cannot sell certain products to non-native Americans, such as alcohol, fireworks, and tobacco. But these transactions still occur, and there is not much that the state can do about it without sparking a big legal and social controversy.
As a result, native American casinos have garnered a reputation over the past 30 to 40 years for being some of the most valuable casinos in the country, thanks to offering services, products, and even casino games that are hard to find at non-native American casinos. These legal grey areas still cause the occasional battle to this day, but most of the time, they get by and do very well for themselves and their communities.
Which American States Have the Most Tribal Native Casinos?
Not all American states allow native casinos to operate, but the majority do. Exactly 29 out of 50 states have at least one native American casino in operation, and some states have far more than that.
Here’s a list of all 29 states with native casinos and their amounts, from most to least:
- Oklahoma (113)
- California (94)
- Minnesota (48)
- Washington (34)
- Wisconsin (28)
- Arizona (26)
- Michigan (24)
- New Mexico (20)
- New York (18)
- Montana (15)
- North Dakota (14)
- South Dakota (12)
- Idaho (10)
- Oregon (10)
- Florida (7)
- Kansas (7)
- Louisiana (6)
- Nebraska (5)
- Nevada (5)
- Alabama (3)
- Iowa (3)
- Mississippi (3)
- North Carolina (3)
- Wyoming (3)
- Alaska (2)
- Colorado (2)
- Connecticut (2)
- Texas (2)
- Indiana (1)
With over 500 native American casinos in the country, they outnumber commercial retail casinos in the United States. Florida surprisingly only has a few native American casinos despite being the original site of the first one. However, residents of states like Arizona, California, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Minnesota who are looking for a reputable native casino to play at should not have to spend very long looking for one.
