The American Spectator : Casino Reparations

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Casino Reparations

You'd have to be a Crazy Horse to take advantage.

SEA ISLE, N.J. -- James Fenimore Cooper's historical novel The Last of the Mohicans concludes with Tamenund (1628-98), the tribal leader of an Indian clan in the Delaware Valley, lamenting the pain of old age and the near-extinction of his people.

"Why should Tamenund stay?" he asks. "The pale-faces are the masters of the earth, and the time of the red-man has not yet come again."

Well, there's big news up the beach in Atlantic City that would bring a big smile to the old chief's face.

In a development that's sure to move large piles of cash from the wallets of the pale-faces to the pockets of the red-men, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has applied for permits to build a huge Hard Rock casino on the boardwalk. It's a $275 million project, planned to be developed in stages, ending with 850 rooms.

Add a thousand Crazy Horse slot machines with pretty cocktail waitresses serving free fire water, and the pale-faces won't know what hit 'em.

The Seminole Tribe bought the Hard Rock's international business in 2006, paying $965 million for its casinos (except the Vegas location), hotels, restaurants and what's said to be the world's largest inventory of rock memorabilia -- a collection that includes a fancy pair of Elton John's high-heels, an old Bob Dylan guitar and one of Madonna's slightly worn bustiers.

With only some 3,300 members in the Seminole Tribe, the $965 million price tag for the Hard Rock business comes out to $292,424 per tribal member or $1.17 million for a family of four.

When the acquisition of Hard Rock's international business was announced, Seminole Vice Chairman Max Osceola said: "Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets. Today, with the acquisition of Hard Rock Cafe, we're going to buy Manhattan back one hamburger at a time."

Several months later, Mr. Osceola was accused of charging more than $85,000 in "personal expenses" to his tribe-issued American Express credit card. "Most of the charges," reported the Miami Herald, "were for jewelry bought at the Platinum Jewelry Exchange in Hollywood, along with the purchase of Sound Advice stereo equipment, home security services and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle."

Clearly, there's now more going on economically at the reservation than selling beads by the side of the road or charging 50 cents to watch a tribe member wrestle an alligator.

The switch in Seminole fortunes from poverty to riches began when the Seminoles became the first U.S. tribe to offer high-stakes gambling when it opened an unregulated bingo hall in 1979 in Hollywood, Fla.

The money came in fast. "Eighteen years after his small tribe pioneered Indian gambling in America, Seminole Chairman James Billie can cruise over his territory in a $9 million jet and see his tribe awash in money," reported the St. Petersburg Times. The jet once belonged to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

With tribal sovereignty in place that gives the Seminoles the right to self-government, there's no public accounting required regarding how much money each tribal member receives from the tribe's gambling operations, its citrus business or its 25-million-packs-a-year cigarette business. But current estimates are around $200,000 annually for each family of four.

From people across the country seeking to cash in via group victimhood membership, the tribe receives dozens of requests daily from folks trying to determine if they belong on any Seminole family tree. It's like the scratch lottery.

About the Author

Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment

Dan Hirsch| 7.21.11 @ 7:58AM

Remember "The Mouse That Roared" storyline? Lose a war with the United States and untold wealth will surely come to you.

The whole trick is surviving the war part.

How long will it be before the Indian tribes recognize that they could legalize drugs, prostitution, and every other vice for their profit?

Will they start licensing murders, thusly? Here's the deal, you pay the tribe $25,000, and if you kill your intended victim on the reservation, we won't prosecute you and we won't let the feds extradite you for trial.

Do not laugh. Who in 1930 or 1960 would have thought that the government would have completely taken over the numbers racket? Lotteries, anyone?

Sheesh...we are so screwed.

Paul Nelson| 7.21.11 @ 7:14PM

Heck of an idea, maybe the Gambino Tribe in Connecticutt, could incorporate it in their casino/reservation

masly| 7.21.11 @ 11:27PM

There are many Indians that are not pleased with the Casinos and see them as a serious danger to the tribes. The amount of money floating around the Seminole Rez endangers sovereignty in the long run.
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Bob K.| 7.21.11 @ 9:13AM

This crap continues while we give our country back to the Indians and continue fighting for so called Democracy in the Near East and keep our borders open and unguarded so millions of illegal immigrants can flow into our own democracy and take jobs away from the men who are fighting for it elsewhere!

Today our local paper in NE Penna. had a a full page article on page 27 about 3 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers killed in Afghanistan along with 5 wounded whose names the Army refused to release. A Pentagon Spokeswoman (A Major-not in harms way like the troops!) explained why: "In accordance with the Privacy Act, HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and the Public Affairs Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense in Washington DC., we do not release individually identifiable information related to personnel wounded in action," (Major) Mantoush said in an e-mail.

It was the units THIRD DEPLOYMENT since 9/11! One wonders if the members of the Bureaucratic Branches of the Armed Services like Major Mantoush ever are required to see real military service?

We die for democracy every where but here in America, where we are in the process of destroying it.

Stuart Koehl| 7.21.11 @ 10:42PM

Bitch, moan, whine and snivel--you're a one-man law firm.

Harry Russell| 7.21.11 @ 10:14AM

This sounds like payback time from the only American Indian tribe which was never conquered. The treatment of native Americans has been a travesty created by the US government. Good for the Seminoles they deserve good times. While they are being criticized they are a sovereign nation, they can do as they please. If someone doesn't like it, don't go there.

Bob K.| 7.21.11 @ 11:18AM

If they are sovereign nations why are you complaining about the way the US Government treated them?

The Clintidote| 7.21.11 @ 11:46PM

I'm Native American. I was born right here in the USA, so where's my loot?

Kingofthenet| 7.21.11 @ 12:11PM

Maybe we should replace Congress with the tribe, they at least seem to be able to raise revenue and be 'Job Creators' As a Chief once said to me 'Smoke 'em if they ain't Taxed'!

Seek| 7.21.11 @ 1:11PM

Indian nations already have sovereign status. That status should be yanked. There is no reason for irredentist Indian nations to exist within U.S. borders as formal entities any more than for parallel Polish, German, Irish or Jewish ethnic "nations" to exist here. Note to the Injuns: We won. Get over it already.

As a related thought, let's abolish the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It spends about $2.5 to $3 billion of taxpayer money to maintain this irredentism. What are we getting in return?

SugartownSuper| 7.21.11 @ 1:15PM

We have treated the Indians as Sovereign Nations when it has suited us to do so, but the Founders regarded them as such. The utterly loathsome Andrew Jackson sent the Seminoles et al on the Trail of Tears and we have, generally speaking, little to be proud of in our relations with them. But I must note that, unlike some other aggrieved parties, the Indians are not asking for reparations. They are accepting their legal status [and making us do the same] and after a long history of poverty are seeking means to become economically self-sufficient. If this means gambling, so be it. So far as I know, there is no Indian cultural inhibition to gambling. Murder and the other items cited are culturally inhibited, so I rather doubt that they will seek to set up Murder, Inc on the reservations. We always found some [often sketchy] legal pretext for squeezing money out of the Indians. The fact that the shoe is now on the other foot bothers me not at all. I just don't go ino the casino!

Quartermaster| 7.21.11 @ 6:18PM

Many Indians also feel that using the white man's vices to milk him is immoral and unworthy of the tribes. They may have been ill used by the white man, but doing wrong to win back what you had puts you on the same plane as the crooks.

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POST American| 7.22.11 @ 5:23AM

---Floating degradation soft-programming ALERT!---

Remember, casino gulag, sports/porn franchise slum
'culture' has been set up to take us down.

Remember, gambling is what you do when
nothing's going on.

Remember, gambling is how you kill time
---in prison.

REMEMBER

lol wut?| 7.25.11 @ 2:46PM

Reparations? sir you insult the unconquered. That new resort and casino, and the rest of The Seminole Tribe of Florida's holding, is most assuredly NOT reparations. It's pure and simple and as plain obvious as the nose on my face good old AMERICAN CAPITALISM! It is not being built to get back at the white man, it is being built to liberate as many dollars as possible from that white man and people of all race, creed, or color. It is no more reparations for Native Americans than Walt Disney World is reparations for mice, ducks, dogs, crickets, and Tinkerbell.

Silly yankee ninnies, how do they work.