Conversely, under the IGRA tribes cannot conduct gaming operations without state input. But because states and tribes negotiate as distinct sovereigns, states cannot automatically impose upon tribes limitations on gaming that they impose on their own citizens. The Act requires tribes to negotiate compacts with states to conduct gaming. The IGRA, notes attorney Robert Nance, is an 'experiment in shared sovereignty' (Nance 1992:71). A gaming compact must be reached in this manner between the state and the tribe if Indian gaming operations are to be lawful. Under the provisions of the Act, states are required to enter into good-faith negotiations with tribes who wish to establish gaming operations. Since few states criminally prohibit all types of gaming ('Las Vegas' nights for charity, for example, are widely permitted), most states, suggests Indian law attorney Linda Epperley, arguably had no power under this ruling to intervene in any type of Indian gaming activity (Epperley 1992: 413).Ĭongress attempted to give some control over Indian gaming to the states by adopting in 1988 the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The Court ruled that a state has no authority to regulate or prohibit gaming on Indian lands if the State otherwise allows gaming. The era of reservation gaming was ushered in by the Supreme Court's decision in the 1987 case Californiav. Tribes, in turn, see such attempts to limit their ability to run gaming as infringements on their sovereignty.

States, however, have perceived this growth in Indian gaming as a challenge to their sovereignty and have, along with the non-Indian gaming industry, sought to restrict Indian operations. For the first time some tribes now have, through gaming profits, the economic means to exercise their 'inherent sovereign powers,' among many, the ability to provide essential services themselves rather than having to depend on the government. The development of gaming operations on Indian reservations, and the phenomenal success some tribes have had with these operations, has brought a new dimension to the debate over Indian sovereignty.

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