There are 240 tribes operating casinos within the United States. The Native American gaming industry has been described as 'recession-resistant', although tribes in many states (including Arizona, California, Connecticut and New Mexico) saw revenues fall at a similar rate to commercial casinos during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

The tribes paid $2bn in direct revenue sharing payments to federal, state and local governments and $7.1bn in taxes from activities stimulated by Indian Gaming. Indian Gaming generated more than $29.3bn of revenue and brought more than 612,000 jobs. In 2015 240 Native American tribes operated 459 gaming facilities across 28 states. Essentially, the tribes still have 'exclusive right' to all classes of gaming except when states do not accept that class or it clashes with federal law.After President Reagan signed the IGRA, Indian gaming revenue skyrocketed from $100 million in 1988 to almost $30bn today. These compacts have been used by state officials to confiscate Indian casino revenue which serves as a 'special' tax on Indian reservations. In 1988 Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) which kept tribal sovereignty to create casino-like halls, but the states and Indians must be in Tribal-State compacts and the federal government has the power to regulate the gaming.

Mystic lake casino tribe payments