Past Perfect
4 TRIBAL GOVERNMENT GAMING 2020
By Roger Gros
Sometimes I forget that I was there when many of the original tribal gaming facilities were developed .
I guess my first contact with tribal gaming started in 1989 , at Foxwoods . Mickey Brown , a longtime New Jersey regulator , had been hired by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and arranged funding from the Malaysian gaming company , Genting , at a time when regular banks and financial institutions wouldn ’ t touch Indian gaming .
I worked for Casino Player magazine at the time , and Mickey invited me up to see his operation , which consisted of high-stakes bingo . In fact , that was part of the facility ’ s name : Foxwoods High Stakes Bingo . I met and interviewed Pequot Chairman Richard “ Skip ” Hayward , who had challenged the state of Connecticut in order to offer table games , because the state allowed charities to hold “ Las Vegas Nights ” that included table games .
At that time , Foxwoods had just bingo , but the most massive bingo parlor I had ever seen — and being a Catholic , I had seen many . The Foxwoods hall was the size of several football fields , and it was jammed with players in every seat . The property offered games where the prizes were new Corvettes , and graduated to $ 250,000 and , later , $ 500,000 in prizes .
I returned the following year , after the courts ruled that tables could be installed at Foxwoods . Mickey gave me a tour of the soon-to-be casino floor . He pulled up some carpet and showed me the electrical conduits that would link the slots machines .
When I asked him why , since only tables had been legalized , not slots , he said , “ Give me another year .”
And he was right . A year later , the tribe cut a deal with the Connecticut governor that gave the state a slice of the revenues , and slots were installed in most of the old bingo room as well as the new casino floor .
A couple of years later came Mohegan Sun , just down the road from Foxwoods . Developed by the legendary Sol Kerzner of the Sun International group , it included former Atlantic City executives like Mitchell Etess , Jim Allen , Bill Velardo and many others .
While the Foxwoods development was somewhat hopscotch to satisfy the growing demand , Mohegan Sun was born with a master plan you see continuing to be implemented today .
On the other side of the country , tribal gaming in California got off to a slower start , even though that ’ s where it was essentially born , following the Supreme Court Cabazon decision in 1987 , which led to the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 .
Touring Southern California in 1995 , I visited many of the casinos , all in fairly remote areas . Most were housed in converted buildings or the “ Sprung ” structures of the day — really just a big tent . At the Pechanga reservation in Temecula , it was even more basic . The “ casino ” was a series of trailers , weaved together and jammed with slot machines , in the middle of a dirt field . On a fiery hot summer day , the air conditioners worked at full blast , and barely cut the heat inside those trailers . Slot machines were malfunctioning , but there were still hundreds of people waiting to get in . Compared to Pechanga ’ s facility today , it was the Stone Age , but it shows the diligence of the tribes to offer the best to their customers .
When an Atlantic City friend of mine got hired to run the tables at Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Minnesota , I grabbed the opportunity to take another statewide tour . Again , the quality of the casinos was spotty at best . Mille Lacs , and its sister property in Hinckley , had been developed by visionary Lyle Berman , and were the most complete casinos at the time . Tribal leaders like Mille Lacs ’ Melanie Benjamin and Stanley Crooks of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community — whose Little Six casino was a literal teepee — were important players not only in Minnesota , but across the country .
I remember visiting Jackpot Junction in Morton , Minnesota , and interviewing Marlin Torguson , who was nearly jumping out of his chair , he was so excited about the future of tribal gaming . Like Berman , he later migrated to Mississippi , and was one of the founders of gaming in that state .
There are dozens of other stories I could tell about tribal gaming ’ s emergence . We need to remember where tribal gaming came from , and honor the people who were in the vanguard of its development , because understanding the past is key to preparing for the future . And the commitment of tribes to ensuring that their members thrive for generations to come makes that a crucial element in the future of tribal gaming .
TRIBAL Government Gaming 2020
Roger Gros , Publisher | rgros @ ggbmagazine . com twitter : @ GlobalGamingBiz
Marjorie Preston , Editor mpreston @ ggbmagazine . com
Frank Legato , Managing Editor | flegato @ ggbmagazine . com twitter : @ FranklySpeakn
Monica Cooley , Art Director | mcooley @ ggbmagazine . com
Terri Brady , Sales & Marketing Director tbrady @ ggbmagazine . com
Floyd Sembler , Business Development Manager fsembler @ ggbmagazine . com
Becky Kingman-Gros , Chief Operating Officer bkingros @ ggbmagazine . com
Lisa Johnson , Communications Advisor lisa @ lisajohnsoncommunications . com twitter : @ LisaJohnsonPR
Columnists Michael Anderson | Ernie Stevens Jr . E . Sequoyah Simermeyer
Contributing Editors Christopher Irwin | Pam Jones | Patrick Roberts Jesse Robles | Kate Spilde | Thomas Zitt
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Rino Armeni , President , Armeni Enterprises
• Mark A . Birtha , Senior Vice President & General Manager , Hard Rock International
•
Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs , President , Lifescapes International
• Nicholas Casiello Jr ., Shareholder , Fox Rothschild
• Jeffrey Compton , Publisher , CDC E-Reports twitter : @ CDCNewswire
•
Dean Macomber , President , Macomber International , Inc .
• Stephen Martino , Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer , MGM Resorts International , twitter : @ stephenmartino
•
Jim Rafferty , President , Rafferty & Associates
• Thomas Reilly , Vice President Systems Sales , Scientific Games
• Michael Soll , President , The Innovation Group
• Katherine Spilde , Executive Director , Sycuan Gaming Institute , San Diego State University , twitter : @ kspilde
•
Ernie Stevens , Jr ., Chairman , National Indian Gaming Association twitter : @ NIGA1985
•
Roy Student , President , Applied Management Strategies
• David D . Waddell , Partner Regulatory Management Counselors PC
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