Gary Larson: Look at the monopoly that enabled the gift

Mdewakanton donation to the U stadium derives from protected tribal gaming proceeds.

By Gary Larson

Last update: October 24, 2007 - 6:09 PM

Good deeds, such as the Shakopee tribe's gift to the University of Minnesota's new football stadium, deserve not be punished. No, they should called what they are -- a generous manifestation of the gambling monopoly handed to indigenous tribes by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, then furthered in Minnesota by then-Attorney General Skip Humphrey in 1989, on the watch of a hands-off Gov. Rudy Perpich.

A Perpich-appointed committee granted tribes the biggest gift of all, one that keeps on giving. To boot, this myopic committee -- and legislators since -- have made certain that nothing like in-kind competition, such as slots at Canterbury Park, would diminish the profits of largely tax-free tribal casinos. It does not get any better than tax-free forever for a business enterprise.

The largest single gift to the athletic department ($12.5 million) derives from those untaxed tribal gambling proceeds, much of it plucked from the poor, sort of a tax on down-on-their-luck jackpot-dreamers and gamblers of babies' shoes and the rent money. Choices are being made, perhaps pathologically for some, afflicted with an urge to win or to escape reality in a clockless casino where the house always wins; that's guaranteed.

The Star Tribune's editorial ("Shakopee tribes' gift is jackpot for U," Oct. 22) exclaims, without foreboding or a hint of shame, that it's "unfortunate that some critics have used the [Shakopee tribes' gift] to reignite debate over non-Indian gambling in Minnesota." What?

Debate is usually a good thing. Truth tends to emerge, if it's lucky. Don't look now, but the Mdewakanton Sioux Community's tax-free casino monopoly in the Twin Cities is maintained by politicians of a certain stripe.

A few years ago a House leader declared that any review of Indian gaming in Minnesota was "a nonstarter." So what if it solved the state's financial woes? So what if a "racino" offered jobs in the hundreds? To deny even discussion is raw political power on behalf (let's face it) of a special interest. And guess which party gets roughly 95 percent of rich Indians' political contributions? The DFL Party. And some wonder why the public is cynical about politicians.

In 1995 a would-be rival casino, intended to enrich three impoverished Ojibwe bands in Wisconsin, was shot down by sheer politics at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That sorry episode led to an independent counsel's investigation and congressional hearings. Whether it's poor Indians who can't contribute to campaigns, or a racino at Canterbury Park, the default verdict seems to be: Indian "gaming" as a forever sacrosanct casino monopoly is safe.

The last sentence in the editorial is brutally ironic: "The [Shakopee] tribe's leaders deserve more credit than they get." Indeed. Locking out competition and winning ensuing PR battles is a Herculean feat.

Gary Larson is a Minnesota freelance writer and former business magazine editor.

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