Gambling seen as key to self-sufficiency

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Some Canadian bands are willing to defy laws to assert their right to run and regulate their own casinos on reserves, aboriginals told a Native gaming conference in Vancouver.

Financially strapped bands say they have to bet their future on gambling because there are no other options.

"There's no resources left - no lumber, no fish - and land claims are still being held up," said an angry chief Robert Thomas of the Nanaimo Indian reserve on Vancouver Island. "And I don't know of any Natives in B.C. who have someone saying to them 'Here's $80 million to become self-sufficient in a very short period of time.'

"We've got an opportunity here and we're going to take it," he told about 300 Natives, gaming authorities and consultants at the two-day conference in early December.

Canadian bands are taking their cue from the successful gaming operations on reserves in the United States, where about 140 such casinos, mostly in the Midwest, take in millions of dollars for economic development, with the blessing of federal and state officials.

More than money is at stake in Canada. Natives are willing to stake their sovereignty on reserve casinos.

Two bands, one in Manitoba and another in New Brunswick, are preparing to expand or open casinos this month, in defiance of the provinces.

Unlicensed gambling is prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada, but lotteries and gaming fall under provincial jurisdiction.

The provinces run their own lotteries and some operate their own casinos. They also allow charities or religious groups, including Native bands, to run their own fund-raising games of chance, such as bingo or raffles. The provinces set restrictions, such as bingo jackpot limits, and collect a percentage of the money raised.

Natives have operated bingos on reserves for years. Now bands in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, British Columbia and Ontario are looking into expanding gaming operations, for the most part by working with the provinces.

Ken Staples of Beaver Lake First Nation at Lac La Biche, Alberta, was at the conference to gather ideas for licensed gaming on his reserve.

"A lot of money leaves the reserve when people buy 649, but it never comes back," through provincial grants from those lottery revenues, he said.

Staples is interested in the Manitoba model, where the province negotiates special gaming agreements with Indian bands. The lottery foundation closely regulated the operations but has relaxed some restrictions, such as size of bingo jackpots.

But bands such as the one on the Roseau River reserve, about 10 kilometres from the U.S. border, say there's still too many restrictions.

"We want them (the province) to lift economic barriers, the economic sanctions," said Roseau River band member Carl Roberts during an interview at the conference.

He called the present system patriarchal and prejudicial against Natives, who he said want to regulate their own industry.

"When non-Indians do something, it's considered honest and viable; when first nations do it, it's automatically crooked."

The band continues to negotiate with the province for more rights, including increasing the number of video lottery terminals on reserves beyond the provincial limit

of 40.

"We'll have one last attempt with them (the province.) If that fails, regardless, we're just going to go ahead," likely before Christmas, said Roberts.

Chuck Koppang, manager of the Native Gaming Division of the Manitoba Lotteries Foundation, told the conference the province must play a role in Native gambling operations.

"As gaming is a cash business, there are many opportunities for participants to 'skim' revenue," he said in his presentation. "The foundation sees a continuing role for its staff, as experienced resources in organizational matters, staff training, audit and enforcement."

However, Koppang said the Native gaming agreements do not attempt to solve the issue of Native sovereignty or jurisdiction.

Doug Sanders, a law professor at the University of Britis Columbia, said while the issue of gambling as an inherent right has yet to be resolved in the courts, he sees how it could be argued successfully under the 1982 Constitution.