the extent of economic inequality in the United
States increased.
Further Reading
Cox, W. Michael, and Richard Alm.Myths of Rich and
Poor: Why We’re Better Off than We Think. New York:
Basic Books, 1999. Examines data on consump-
tion, asset ownership, and social mobility to ar-
gue that most Americans enjoyed substantial im-
provement in their economic lives between the
1970’s and the 1990’s.
Mishel, Lawrence, and David M. Frankel.The State of
Working America. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe,
1990-1991. Paints a bleak picture of declining real
wages and increasing poverty and inequality.
Phillips, Kevin.The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and
the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath. New
York: Harper & Row, 1990. Argues that public pol-
icies of the 1980’s substantially shifted income
from the poor to the rich.
Paul B. Trescott
See also Air traffic controllers’ strike; Business
and the economy in the United States; Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986; Immigration to
the United States; Inflation in the United States;
Reaganomics; Unemployment in the United States;
Unions.
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
of 1988
Identification Federal legislation
Date Went into effect on October 17, 1988
The Indian Gaming Regulator y Act authorized Native
American tribes to operate gambling facilities, using all
games tolerated elsewhere in a state. It required states to
show good faith in negotiating compacts that specified the
conditions for establishing and operating such casinos.
Since a Supreme Court ruling in the early nine-
teenth century, the United States has recognized
that state laws do not apply to Native American tribes
on reservations unless those laws are specifically au-
thorized by an act of Congress. When some tribes
built casinos and bingo parlors in the 1980’s, several
states claimed the right to regulate those facilities
under Public Law 83-280, which had given those
states the authority to enforce criminal laws on the
reservations. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in
favor of the tribes inCalifornia v. Cabazon Band of Mis-
sion Indians(1987), holding that the states had been
given no authority to regulate tribal activities that
were not proscribed by their criminal codes. The
tribes enthusiastically welcomed the ruling, whereas
many state officials called on Congress to expand
the states’ powers to regulate gambling.
Attempting to arrive at a compromise, Congress
enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)
of 1988, which pleased neither the tribes nor the
states. Among its provisions, the statute separated
gaming into three categories. For Class 1 games,
consisting of traditional and social games, the tribes
were given exclusive control. Class 2 encompassed
games like bingo and lotto, which were to be regu-
lated by the tribes with the oversight of the National
Indian Gaming Commission. Class 3 comprised pri-
marily casino-style games of chance. In order to op-
erate a Class 3 facility, a tribe was required to negoti-
ate a contract with the relevant state, clarifying such
matters as permissible locations of casinos, the kinds
of gaming permitted, and provisions for tribes to
make donations in lieu of state and local taxes.
The IGRA was quite comprehensive in scope. It
required tribal ownership of all casinos and bingo
parlors operating under the act, and it further re-
quired all resulting revenues to be used for specific
tribal activities. It provided for the three-member
National Indian Gaming Commission to be estab-
lished to make rules and supervise Class 2 and Class
3 gaming. The statute referred to all Native Ameri-
can lands, with Section 2719 specifying that gaming
would usually not be allowed on land acquired by a
tribe after 1988. There were two major exceptions to
this rule: land that was acquired within or contigu-
ous to existing Indian lands, and situations in which
the secretary of the interior determined that a gam-
ing facility would not be detrimental to the sur-
rounding community or to the state.Impact The 1980’s saw the beginnings of American
Indian gaming as an important stream of income for
the Native American tribes. The IGRA, combined
with the Supreme Court’s 1987 decision, appeared
to ensure that the enterprise would continue into
the future. The rapid development of Indian gam-
ing sparked great controversy. In less than a decade,
some tribes with large casinos were moving toward
self-sufficiency, and a few of the smaller tribes even512 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 The Eighties in America