Jamestown S'Klallam Chair Touts Tribal Gaming Benefits in Washington State

Thread: Indian Gaming in the News

In an August 15 editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, W. Ron Allen, Chair of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and President of the Washington Indian Gaming Association, lauded the positive economic impacts of tribal gaming in the state.

Allen's information comes from a study conducted by Jonathan Taylor, an economist with expertise in the socioeconomic impacts of Indian gaming. Taylor's study uses economic multipliers to measure tribal gaming's secondary economic effects. Multipliers capture the idea that beyond its direct effects (i.e., consumer gaming and nongaming expenditures, such as spending on food and entertainment), tribal casinos also generate indirect or induced effects as each dollar spent at the casino ripples through the state's economy. And even if the tribe itself is not taxed, the direct and indirect effects can generate state and local tax dollars. In Washington, for example, Taylor estimates that tribal enterprises annually yield some $141 million in state and local taxes.