Before I begin, I want to tell a familiar story.
A large, well-known gambling operation, overseen by shady management and regulators, overspends during the "good times" around 2008, then gives out large, overly-generous distributions to its numerous owners. Eventually it finds itself broke and the federal government has to bail them out.
I'm talking about Full Tilt, right?
Wrong.
I'm talking about Foxwoods, a large Indian casino in Connecticut.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013...e-federal-aid/
They have taken plenty of federal money already, and now they are pursuing even more federal grants. Remember, these are grants, not loans. They don't have to be paid back. It's free money. The Pequot tribe (which owns Foxwoods) received $1 million in 2008, and increasing grants each year, hitting $2.7 million in 2011. They keep asking for more and more.
Even more offensive is the fact that, at one point, Foxwoods paid out $100,000 anually to each adult member of the Pequot tribe. This is all too similar to the Full Tilt distributions, which largely sank the company. Foxwoods no longer pays distributions to its tribe members, but it's unbelievable that they could qualify for federal grants after distributing such money in recent years.
The problem is that all recognized Indian tribes are eligible for federal grants, even if they also own profitable casinos. The grants don't directly go to the casinos, but rather go toward health care and other necessities for poor tribe members. That on the surface sounds okay, until you realize that the tribes were allowed to operate casinos for self-sufficiency -- exactly for the purpose of eliminating the need for the government to take care of them. The Pequots and other casino-owning tribes are getting the best of both worlds.
Indian gaming is such a joke for so many reasons.Thomas Weissmuller, who was chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court until 2011, said that near the end of his tenure the tribal council said they had distributed too much money to members and urged department leaders to pursue more federal grants. He said there was resistance from some council members, who raised questions about the effects on sovereignty, but he was personally encouraged to pursue grants by officials including the tribal chairman, Rodney Butler.
Weissmuller said he was not comfortable seeking such assistance for the tribal court system because most of the issues it dealt with were related to the casino, which is essentially a commercial enterprise.
"A billion-dollar gaming enterprise should fully fund the tribal government," said Weissmuller, who said that he was forced out of the job by tribal officials who told him he did not appear to have the tribe's interests at heart on other matters.