Newsroom
Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
GAMING REVENUES
What does the Mille Lacs Band do with gaming revenues?
The Mille Lacs Band has made a lot of progress thanks to gaming revenues from Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley, but it still has significant unmet needs and high poverty rates in comparison to the general population. The Band uses gaming revenues to provide direct benefits to tribal members, which helps reduce the burden on other governments to provide services related to housing, health care, education, and child welfare. For instance, the Band has built new clinics, schools, reservation neighborhoods with new homes, and a regional wastewater treatment facility.
Although sharing gaming revenues is enough to help our members, neighboring communities, and local charities, it is not enough to make anyone wealthy. Only a few small tribes in the United States have become wealthy due to gaming; they are located near large urban markets and have smaller memberships.
Why don’t the more successful tribes share money with the poorer tribes?
With tribal sovereignty comes certain unique rights, including the right to operate casinos.
Each tribe is a separate sovereign government. Just like every county or state has its own budget, so does every tribe. However, the Mille Lacs Band does donate to causes that help less fortunate tribes and American Indians in need.
Why should we support tribal casinos? They only benefit the tribes.
The Mille Lacs Band and other tribes use gaming revenues to bring jobs, tax revenues, economic development, and tourism to their regions. Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley alone directly employ approximately 3,000 people; only about 6% of them are Mille Lacs Band members. They also provide more than 3,400 people with health insurance coverage. Harming Grand Casinos would harm all of those people plus hundreds of casino vendors, local businesses that rely on the casinos for visitor traffic, and nonprofits that benefit from casino donations.
TAXES
Do tribal governments pay taxes?
The Mille Lacs Band is the largest taxpayer in Pine County and one of the largest in Mille Lacs County. The Band, the Corporate Commission, Grand Casino Mille Lacs, and Grand Casino Hinckley paid more than $1.6 million in combined property taxes to three counties in 2010, including:
$1,118,884 to Pine County
$454,389 to Mille Lacs County
$102,706 to Aitkin County
Do tribal casinos pay taxes?
In addition to the property taxes that the Mille Lacs Band pays in Pine, Mille Lacs, and Aitkin counties, the casinos have paid $86.2 million in state and federal taxes based on employee wages since opening their doors.
However, tribal casino profits are exempt from county, state and federal taxes because they are tribal government operations, not private, for-profit businesses. Just like state lottery revenues are reserved for use by the state, tribal gaming revenues are reserved for use by the tribes.
The Mille Lacs Band government taxes Grand Casino revenues at 100%. The government then utilizes the revenues to provide programs and services to Band members, invest in infrastructure and economic development that benefit the community, and accomplish other important goals.
Do individual American Indians pay taxes?
American Indians pay federal income tax on all of their income. The vast majority also pay state income taxes; the only exceptions are tribal members who live and work on the reservation.
UNIQUE RIGHTS
Why are tribes treated differently than other ethnic minority groups in America?
The U.S. Constitution recognizes the sovereignty of American Indian tribal governments. Tribes are not subservient to states, but are on par with them, subject only to federal authority. That’s why American Indians are much more than an ethnic group; their governments are individual sovereigns.
With tribal sovereignty comes certain unique rights, including the right to operate casinos. In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Indian tribes could conduct gaming on tribal lands as long as gaming is legal in the tribe’s home state. That same year, the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was put in place to require compacts between gaming tribes and their home states. The State of Minnesota chose to allow Indian gaming in order to create jobs and boost the economy in Greater Minnesota. State leaders took pains to confine casinos to tribal lands and specific games.
Why are Indian tribes allowed to have a monopoly on gaming in Minnesota.
Tribes do not have a gaming monopoly. The state operates the Minnesota State Lottery, nonprofit organizations sell charitable pull-tabs, and Canterbury Park and Running Aces Harness Track offer pari-mutuel racing and card games.
Isn’t it time for Minnesota to renegotiate gaming compacts with the tribes?
When negotiated, the State of Minnesota specifically chose not to include a termination date for its compacts. The reasoning behind the compacts was to create jobs and economic development in Greater Minnesota. Since this need had no termination date, neither did the compacts.
The need for jobs and economic development in Greater Minnesota remains strong, and Indian gaming has made a more significant impact than the state’s JOBZ program without any state financial assistance. In fact, the Mille Lacs Band’s Grand Casinos alone directly employ approximately 3,000 people.
Why are tribal casinos exempt from the state’s smoking ban?
As a sovereign government, the Mille Lacs Band isn’t subject to Minnesota regulations. Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley are located on Band land, and therefore they are also exempt from state smoking regulations. However, we do ban smoking in many areas of our facilities where individuals under age 18 are present.
Why are tribes allowed to make political donations?
Like any other group of people with common interests, many Band members and Band officials are politically active. The Band makes contributions through a political action committee (PAC) called Mah Mah Wi No Min I. Like other PACs, the Band’s PAC donates to a variety of candidates and caucuses.
CASINOS AS EMPLOYERS
I’ve heard that Indian casinos are bad employers. Is that true?
We generally hear just the opposite. Over the past 20 years, many people have told us how grateful they are to have Grand Casinos in the community. They tell us that our casinos offer good pay and the best health benefits in the area. Some people have even come out of retirement to work at Grand Casinos, because they are such fun places to work. That’s probably why half of Grand Casinos’ employees have been with us for five or more years.
I’ve heard that Indian casinos hire tribal members over non-Indians. Isn’t that discriminatory?
The Mille Lacs Band and its casinos hire the best candidate for each job, just like other employers. However, assuming that applicants have equal qualifications, preference is given to Mille Lacs Band members, followed by other American Indians, followed by all others. This is an American Indian hiring preference that is detailed in Band law.
Even with a Band hiring preference, only 6% of Grand Casino employees are Band members. This is a good indication that we have plenty of employment opportunities for everyone.
GAMING EXPANSION
Why shouldn’t the state expand gaming beyond tribal casinos?
The U.ereignsBecause the State of Minnesota needs money, some elected leaders are listening to the advice of a few private businesspeople who mainly want to profit from their own gaming ventures.
But the reality is that gaming is not a guaranteed revenue source. In today’s challenging economy, gaming revenues – like revenues in most other industries – have dropped nationwide. Studies also show that Minnesota’s gaming market is saturated. Rather than attract new gamers, expanding gaming would take existing gamers away from tribal casinos. This would directly impact the rural communities that depend on gaming jobs and the economic opportunities created through tourism and employee spending.
Wouldn’t more gaming in Minnesota represent healthy competition?
Competition is not the issue. Grand Casinos already compete, and we welcome the competition.
However, new gaming facilities in Minnesota would
relocate jobs (not add jobs) from rural communities to metro areas. If gaming expands, Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley would lose up to 40% of their revenues. Most of the jobs lost in rural Minnesota would be difficult – or even impossible – to replace.
