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McCain Weighs in on Indian Gambling, Trust Mess

While Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., denied Monday that he was putting Indian gambling on notice, it certainly appeared that way in a meeting with reporters participating in a fellowship through the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.

The chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee suggested that Indian gambling is ripe for scandal and also weighed in on the contentious trust reform issue embodied in the Cobell vs. Norton case.

Following are a few comments from McCain on each issue.

On Indian gambling: 
He noted the rapid expansion of Indian gambling “beyond our wildest imagination” since Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act In 1988. The industry soared to an estimated $18.5 billion in gambling Revenue last year.

“Wherever money is the item that’s exchanged, there’s going to be the risk of corruption,” McCain said. He cited Nevada’s early battles with corruption and subsequent strong regulation and referred to the state as the experts in requiring “transparency” in keeping the industry clean.

McCain cited the need for “transparency, transparency, transparency” in Indian gambling.

Asked how that squares with tribal sovereignty, McCain responded that “this is always the rub” determining where tribal sovereignty ends and federal sovereignty begins.

While some gambling experts consider McCain’s home state a model for Indian gambling regulation, he said regulation varies among states and suggested the issue needs clarification.

Hearings to determine things like tribal land acquisition for gambling are following IGRA guidelines and to identify the nature and size of Indian gambling problems are important, he said.

“We will continue to exercise oversight responsibilities,” he said.
McCain, however, did note that Indian gambling, while wildly successful for some tribes, hasn’t dug all tribes out of their social and economic woes.

“We have to fight the impression on the part of many that all Native Americans are rich,” he said, reiterating his call to ensure the industry is run as well as possible to avoid any corruption that could, in his terms, kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

On Cobell vs. Norton:
McCain has said he wants to settle the case else it will drag on for years and end up in the Supreme Court.

Claims for more than $100 billion for full accounting of alleged trust mismanagement could never be paid, he said.

“The Congress of the United States will never appropriate that kind of money,” McCain said calling for a settlement that would be viewed as bringing “closure” and seen as fair to all parties.

Asked how much he thinks could settle the issue, he said it “can’t be too high,” but added that he doesn’t know the amount.

There must be a fix, though, to what McCain called a “deplorable and despicable situation” on the trust issue.

While McCain said the Bureau of Indian Affairs has had many failings, he said he’d rather fix BIA than abolish it. If it weren’t around, who would administer Native American programs? he asked.

-- John Stearns, Arizona Republic

Posted on 03.09.05 at 1:41 AM by Victor Merina