Tribal leaders from across the U.S. are gathering in Minnesota this week to discuss the current gaming and political landscapes and strategies to deal with them, especially with the threat of online gaming from outside their state’s borders.
The Indian Gaming Association 2025 Mid-Year Conference kicks off Monday at Mystic Lake Casino with the overall theme of “Built to Endure.” Day one of the three-day conference focuses on Indian Country being under pressure and in the crosshairs of federal policy.
“From sweeping federal budget cuts to mounting trade tariffs, Indian Country is facing a wave of economic disruption,” said IGA Conference Chair Victor Rocha. “Tribal governments are contending with slashed funding for critical services — health care, education, law enforcement — while tribal gaming operations struggle with rising costs tied to construction, technology, and supply chains.”
During a webinar last week, Rocha and Brian Giles, IGA’s executive director, talked about these issues.
“Tribal gaming is facing a perfect storm of disruption: federal policy shifts, economic pressure, emerging gray markets, and the intensifying battle over sports betting (in the guise of prediction markets),” Rocha said. “Built to Endure brings together tribal leaders, policymakers, and industry experts to chart a path forward. From defending sovereignty against unregulated threats to shaping the future of sports betting in states like Minnesota, this year’s conference focuses on resilience, innovation, and securing tribal gaming’s place in a rapidly evolving landscape.”
From delayed federal funding and program interruptions to ripple effects on local economies, a shutdown could have significant consequences for tribes that rely on federal resources to support essential services, housing, healthcare, and education, Rocha said. Beyond government programs, uncertainty also affects consumer confidence, potentially leading to decreased spending that impacts tribal and commercial gaming enterprises, he added.
Giles worries that the unregulated nature of prediction markets will only get worse under a federal government shutdown.
“It will roll out faster and further,” Giles said. “For Indian Country, with 60% of our gaming revenue going to essential government services, if you start to see a decrease in the volume in sports books, you’ll almost have to look at partnering with somebody on this stuff. If you’re a state like Minnesota that’s trying to work this out, the bus might have already left the station.”
Rocha said Minnesota is considered the gold standard of state gaming compacts, but now wonders if that’s outdated, given the encroachment of out-of-state companies offering gaming online.
A Wednesday session at the conference will examine sweepstakes gambling and offshore crypto casinos draining billions from tribal markets, while prediction markets loom as a major future disruptor. Rocha will be on a panel that includes Tres York, vice president of government relations at the American Gaming Association.
“The fight is not over yet. Does that mean exclusivity is gone? Yeah. Download an app. That’s the reality. I hate to burst everybody’s bubble, but the rat line from sweepstakes (companies) – they were always going to move to (sports betting) prediction markets,” Rocha said.
Giles said there’s a lot of pressure on Indian gaming at this time as tribal governments worry about federal funding and grants.
“It’s tenuous. If we’re staring down the barrel of a government shutdown, the only thing we have to reference are the previous shutdowns. Maybe nobody remembers them, because they didn’t impact you. For Indian Country, it does. Almost immediately. All of a sudden, the Parks Service personnel you worked with aren’t showing up. There’s the EPA and the (Army) Corps of Engineers. There’s a litany of federal contacts on a day-to-day basis that Indian Country really relies upon. The last shutdown in Trump’s first term was three months long. Who knows how long it could have gone on for, but for the air traffic controllers calling attention to not enough people showing up to work every day. The skies were too crowded and near misses that freaked everybody out. That’s what we’re facing at this point.”
Giles warned tribal leaders to start preparing for an October and November shutdown, because it didn’t work well for Indian Country the last time.
“Indian Country was suffering from week one,” Giles said. “Schools didn’t have enough personnel to remain open and the roads weren’t being cleared at the onset of winter (because of furloughs at the Park Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs). Tribal police departments ran out of funds. The national organizations are going to come together and get a better game plan than the last time. It was such a shock the last time and now six months into this, we’re having to relive it all over again.”
Rocha joked that tribes have been “dealing with this stuff since (Christopher) Columbus landed.”