Statistics put out this week relating to the growth of tribal gaming shows that these casinos reached record levels of revenue intake. The annual Indian Gaming Industry report showed that tribal gaming outpaced the growth of commercial casinos in the United States in the year 2014.
According to the report, there are now 242 Native American tribes which operate over 350,000 gaming machines and 7,800 table games, and close to 480 gaming facilities in 28 states in the US.
The author of the new report, Dr. Alan Meister, an economist with the Nathan Associates Inc which has done extensive research on Indian gaming issues over the past two decades, said the following: “Indian gaming’s growth in 2014 outpaced that in 2013, paralleling the improvement of US and state economies.”
“However,” pointed out Dr. Meister, “there was substantial variation in performance across states, from a high of 13% to a low of -9%”.
Growth in the tribal gaming sector continued for the fifth consecutive year, with revenue climbing across the nation by around 2% to an all-time high of $28.9 billion. Gaming revenue climbed in 20 states, with three states showing double-digit growth. Eight states saw a decline in their tribal gaming revenues.
California is the country’s best performing state in terms of tribal gaming, with 72 casinos generating $7.3 billion in gaming revenue. “California has lagged in terms of recovery, but 2014 showed a decent amount of growth,” said the author of the report.
Tribal casinos generated 39% of the total gaming revenue in the top two states – California and Oklahoma. The latter led by the highest number of casinos, 126 in total, saw revenue growth 4.8% to $3.9 billion.
Other statistics found in the Indian Gaming Industry Report show:
- Tribal gaming facilities generated $95 billion in economic output in the states they operate in, both directly and indirectly.
- These facilities also generated 738,000 places of employments, $1.7 billion in taxes on a federal, state and local level, as well as $32.6 billion in salaries.
- The facilities generated $8 billion in direct revenue sharing payments to governments on state, local and federal levels.
Indian gaming thus generated 43.5% of all casino gaming revenue in the United States in 2014, compared to the commercial sector which accounts for 44.2%.
Dr. Meister said that this was “the closest the gap has ever been”.
