The gaming industry offers several benefits to the Native American culture. From increasing positive self image and reducing unemployment to stimulating local economies, the gaming industry has helped Native Americans to assert their own specific role in the gambling industry and a larger presence in the United States as well.

The Benefits of the Industry

Since gaming has always been such a large part of Native American culture, the growth of the Indian gaming industry has helped to promote more awareness about the Native American culture and its traditions. People are becoming more aware through the actions of specific organizations that gaming is more than just gambling to the Native American people. These realizations are helping to improve the image and negate certain misconceptions some people may have previously had about Native Americans and gambling. Certain negatives such as substance abuse, which in the case of Native Americans is often encouraged by cultural conflict and low self-esteem, are gradually turned into positives by the increased acceptance of gaming as part of Native American culture.

Besides having a positive social impact, gaming also has a profoundly positive impact on the lives of the tribal members themselves. The success that the growing industry offers its participants has helped to turn around the lives of many Native Americans who once struggled on the fledgling reservations. Tribal members who were once poor and had to depend on assistance from the federal government now have several job opportunities with the expanding gaming industry.

This success also encourages a more positive attitude about the gaming industry and better relations between the states and the tribal governments. Although the tribal governments must answer to the federal government in the event of a hard-to-settle tribal/state conflict, the benefits of a successful gaming industry on the communities surrounding the Indian reservations help to promote better tribal/state relations. Gaming is certainly not the same industry to Native Americans that it is for other people participating in gambling, and it hasn’t been for hundreds of years. Taking a deeper look into the subject of Native Americans and gambling enables people to see the difference between the two.