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. a casino run by a sovereign nation, such as the one
proposed by the Ho-Chunk Nation, brings with it the
following concerns:
Tribal casinos can only exist on sovereign trust land and
therefore cannot be
regulated in any way by the state. Once licensed, there is
NO control over them!
75%
of casino revenues are siphoned out of the community in a
30-50 mile radius going to the Ho-Chunk nation, never to
return.
Local
businesses show significant decrease in sales…especially
restaurants.
Crime,
rape, violence, addiction & suicides rise dramatically.
Your
property values will decrease as people exodus the area
while your real estate taxes will increase to pay for the
additional social costs.
The
average wage of casino employees in Las Vegas was less than
$10,000/year. The recent independent study on gambling in
Illinois by the BGA reveals that the career path jobs and
good salaries touted by Deloitte and Touche on behalf of the
casino operators for proposed casinos would be low-paying
and unstable. "The State of Illinois shouldn’t be
deluded into believing that casinos will generate such great
jobs." Click for Link to Better government report
www.bettergov.org
Public and Research page.
Sovereign
nations are exempt from:
State
laws restricting gambling
Many
federal taxes and all state income, sales, and
excise taxes
State
environmental and land use laws
State
workers compensation and occupational health and
safety laws
Sovereign
nations are protected from state laws governing personal
injuries, sexual harassment and contracts.
Click Here to see what a state licensed casino would pay in
revenue; whereas a tribal casino doesn't pay that revenue
An
article in the August, 2004, Christianity Today
magazine says:
"Sixteen
years ago, Congress passed the Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act (IGRA), which regulates tribal
gambling on reservations. Tribal casinos are
big business. There are 369 tribal gambling
operations in 29 states. California, with 56,
has the most. Because casinos are on sovereign
tribal land, they are exempt from federal, state,
and local taxes. In 2001, a total of 200
tribal casinos grossed $12.7billion of legal
gambling's annual $30 billion in revenue, and tribes
kept $5 billion as profit.
The United States has 601 federal- or
state-recognized tribes, but another 200 want to
reorganize, many because they want to cash in on the
gambling windfall. Payoffs can make tribes
with a few dozen members wealthy in a hurry.
Congress designed IGRA to alleviate poverty.
But nearly 80 percent of American Indians receive no
financial benefit from gambling revenues, according
to U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA). Wolf
claims the process of officially recognizing
legitimate tribes has become corrupted because of
the money gambling investors have poured into
helping defunct tribes gain legal standing."
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