Indian Gambling in Ohio: What Are the Odds
![handle is hein.journals/capulr32 and id is 247 raw text is: INDIAN GAMBLING IN OHIO: WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
BLAKE A. WATSON*
I. INTRODUCTION
In 1991, as an attorney in the Department of Justice, I helped write a
brief urging the United States Supreme Court to decline to consider the
State of Connecticut's legal arguments raised in opposition to the plans of
the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe to construct and operate a casino.' At that
time, I had never heard of this tribe, and I would wager (no pun intended)
that few people outside of Connecticut were aware that-just eight years
earlier-the Mashantucket Pequots had obtained federal recognition as a
tribe by an Act of Congress.2
The Pequots' Foxwoods Resort Casino opened its doors in 1992, and
today is one of the largest casinos in the world, with over 5,800 slot
machines, a spacious high-stakes bingo hall, and more than 300 gaming
tables. According to one estimate, the tribal casino's gross revenue was
approximately $1.3 billion in 1999.4 Since 1988, Indian gambling
revenues in general have grown from $171 million to over $12 billion per
Copyright @ 2003, Blake A. Watson.
* Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law. J.D. 1981, Duke
University School of Law; B.A. 1978, Vanderbilt University. Research for this Article was
supported by the University of Dayton School of Law through a summer research grant.
I Brief of Amici Curiae, Connecticut v. Mashantucket Pequot Tribe (No. 90-871).
The Supreme Court denied the State's petition for a writ of certiorari. Connecticut v.
Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, 499 U.S. 975 (1991).
2 In 1983, Congress extended federal recognition to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe
by enacting the Connecticut Indian Lands Claims Settlement Act. See Act of Oct. 18, 1983,
Pub. L. No. 98-134, 97 Stat. 851 (1983) (codified at 25 U.S.C. §§ 1751-1760 (1992)). The
Act is also known as the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Claims Settlement Act. See
Connecticut ex rel. Blumenthal v. Babbitt, 26 F. Supp. 2d 397, 401 (D. Conn. 1998),
judgment rev'd and remanded, Connecticut ex rel. Blumenthal v. U. S. Dep't of Interior,
228 F.3d 82 (2d Cir. 2000), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 1007 (2001) (noting that the purpose of
the legislation was 'to provide Congressional ratification and implementation of a
settlement of claims to land and consequential damages that [had] been raised [in a federal
lawsuit filed] by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe in 1976') (alterations in original).
3 See Kathryn R.L. Rand, There Are No Pequots on the Plains: Assessing the
Success of Indian Gaming, 5 CHAP. L. REV. 47, 63 (2002) [hereinafter Rand, No Pequots on
the Plains].
4 Id. See also id. at 63 n.121 (In 2000, the combined revenue of Foxwoods and
the Mohegan Sun, Connecticut's second tribal casino [owned by the Mohegan Tribe], was
about $1.9 billion.).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/capulr32&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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