Biggest loser at craps table? Uncle Sam

The Lowell Sun
03/30/2013


Anyone who has traveled to Connecticut's Indian casinos to gamble hard-earned spending money on cards, dice or slots knows in the long run the house always wins.

Unless a bettor counts cards at blackjack or cheats, the odds are stacked in the casinos' favor. That realization has prompted not a few us to at least think about searching our ancestry to see if we have any Mashantucket Pequot or Mohegan blood, so we can become part owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino or Mohegan Sun.

Indeed, the Pequots, owners of Foxwoods, at one time distributed checks exceeding $100,000 a year to adult tribal members. How's that for a profit-sharing plan?

It certainly seemed the legislation that allowed poverty-stricken tribes to open casinos so they could become financially self-sufficient was working like a charm.

That was then. Now these gaming palaces in the Connecticut woods have fallen on tough times, largely because of the Great Recession but also because of the billions in debt the tribes always figured they'd be able to pay off. The Pequots' annual stipends to members have stopped.

Now, like a gambler who has lost his last chip but still can't get enough, the tribes are hitting the ATM -- one that is owned and operated by the federal government. That's right, you.

Over the last five years, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has received more than $4.5 million in grants from the Interior Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Mohegans have cashed in, too.

We find it appalling that tribes owning casinos would seek the same grant money that aims to help poor tribes on reservations in the West.

"The whole purpose of the 1988 law that authorized Indian casinos was to help federally recognized tribes raise money to run their governments by building casinos on their reservations," Robert Steele, a former Connecticut congressman, told The AP.

"I would argue strongly that federal money was meant for struggling tribes. Certainly the Mashantucket Pequots and the Mohegans couldn't under any circumstances be put in that category."

Grants developed for destitute Native Americans should not be going to tribes that own some of the largest casinos in the world. The federal government has a choice: Change the rules or continue to be the Indian casinos' biggest sucker.


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