Friday, December 13, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rule enforcement pushed for tribes

Interior secretary says casinos need effective regulation to be beneficial

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, responding to national publicity about problems in Indian gaming, said Thursday the benefits of tribal casinos will be undermined without effective regulation.

"As we have seen with the Time magazine articles recently, there are challenges and dangers to viable gaming," Norton said.

Norton delivered her remarks before swearing in the three new members of the National Indian Gaming Commission, who lead a 63-member federal agency charged with regulating more than 300 tribal gaming operations that produced $13 billion last year.

An investigation by journalists Donald Barlett and James Steele reported as Time magazine's cover story this week said the commission has yet to discover a single case of corruption in tribal gaming despite numerous complaints from tribe members.

New York Times columnist William Safire on Thursday described the commission as a "toothless tiger."

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., issued a statement this week saying Norton has a "personal responsibility to deal with this issue and to make proposals to remedy the disaster that is our nation's Indian gambling program."

"Our responsibility is to enforce the law," Norton responded Thursday. "The law gives some authority to the commission and some to the department. Working together with the new commission members, we will enforce the law."

Norton was referring to the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which established the commission to oversee reservation gambling.

Norton was whisked away by aides before she could answer a question about whether Indian gaming is becoming a crisis,

Philip Hogen, who was sworn in by Norton as the commission's new chairman, was described by Safire as a man who will "rock no boats."

"If the boat needs rocking, we're not going to shy from it," Hogen said.

Hogen, 58, insisted Indian gaming is effectively regulated primarily by the tribes themselves.

"We're not the first line of defense, so to speak, for the regulation of Indian gaming. The Indian tribes are," Hogen said. "They're doing a great job and we want to look over their shoulder and be sure that that continues to be the case."

Hogen also disputed an assertion that the commission has never uncovered a case of corruption.

"We have ferreted out instances of corruption; we have saved tribes dollars; we have put them on the right track," Hogen said.

Asked how many scandals the commission has uncovered, Hogen said: "Dozens."

However, Hogen didn't offer a strong denial to Safire's description of the commission as a "toothless tiger."

"Well, I think that the process, the way it's designed, is imperfect," Hogen said. "That is, we have an enforcement mechanism but it's slow and it's cumbersome. If we could clean that up a little bit. If we could move with a little more dispatch, I don't think we would be so characterized."

A native of Kadoka, S.D., Hogen becomes chairman after working almost 14 months as the Interior Department's associate solicitor for Indian affairs.