Different Eggs, Different Baskets

At the National Indian Gaming Association’s annual meeting last week, discussed here, NIGA Chair Ernie Stevens addressed a growing trend among tribes: economic diversification. Tribal governments are using gaming revenue to leverage all sorts of economic development opportunities, both on and off the reservation, that have nothing to do with gaming.

In addition to the obvious –- tourism and the like –- Stevens predicts that tribes will be at the cutting edge in green-energy practices, energy development, and individual entrepreneurship.

This follows an age-old formula for investing: minimize risk so as to maximize returns. As Sheila Morago, executive director of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association, suggested, “It's very important to diversify so all your eggs are not in the same basket." Diversification protects against an economic downturn, the renegotiation of tribal-state compacts, and an increasingly competitive tribal and non-tribal gaming market.