Statewide gaming study ‘under-reported’ impacts on tribal casinos, Northern Arapaho spokesperson says

(Evanston, WY) – A recent study analyzing the impacts of expanded gaming in Wyoming did not adequately measure the effects on the state’s tribal casinos, a spokesperson for the Northern Arapaho Business Council said this month.

The Spectrum Gaming Group conducted the study last year on behalf of the Wyoming Gaming Commission and presented the results to the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Gaming during a meeting Aug. 7.

Tribal impacts

After Spectrum’s committee presentation, NABC spokesperson Travis McNiven offered some feedback on the study – particularly the portion that says the future expansion of Historic Horse Racing (HHR) in Wyoming wouldn’t negatively impact the state’s tribal casinos. 

The study says “(we do) not believe further expansion of HHR in Wyoming would negatively impact the state’s three Native American casinos because a) the two forms of gaming have coexisted – and grown – since 2013 and b) the expansion of HHR is likely to take place in locations distant from tribal casinos and closer to out-of-state population centers.”

But McNiven pointed out that, since Wyoming legalized HHR in 2013, foot traffic at tribal casinos has fallen by 66 percent, tribal gaming revenue has fallen 34 percent, and there are about 500 fewer jobs available at tribal casinos.

“As gaming has expanded (in Wyoming), there’s been a significant impact on the tribe’s gaming operation, and those things are certainly under-reported or somewhat ignored within the report,” McNiven said. 

The “trend of disregarding the impact on tribal casinos continued with the igaming section of the report,” McNiven added, pointing to another portion of the study that says “igaming in Wyoming would not cause an erosion of either HHR gross gaming revenue (GGR) or Native American casino GGR, but … could restrict the ordinary growth of gaming revenues in those sectors.”

After “running the analysis” from another portion of the study, however, McNiven said the numbers forecast that tribal gaming revenues would fall by another 11 percent “should igaming move forward in the state.”

“This, in turn, would decrease revenues in non-gaming departments within the tribal casinos and additional loss of jobs,” McNiven said. “The ability to igame – to do casino-based games on your phone, anywhere, anytime, 24/7, in any corner of the state – would (compete with) those same games where somebody would drive to a brick and mortar and play. … It certainly would have a significant impact.”

‘Inaccurate’

McNiven also called one part of the report “inaccurate in scope and nature.”

He was referring to a portion of the study that said “all the potential casino GGR in Wyoming is available to the HHRs located at the off-track betting sites” because of the tribal casinos’ “limited availability of table games, their relatively inconvenient location for the bulk of the state’s population, and the restricted hours of table play.”

House-banked table games at the Wind River Casino are only open for eight hours a day, three days a week, according to the study – but McNiven said the Spectrum Gaming Group never reached out to find out “how the casinos operate – or the revenues, or the impacts.”

“We would certainly invite … any additional follow-up from the Spectrum group,” he said. “The tribe would (also) like to invite this committee … to come visit the Wind River Hotel and Casino and allow an opportunity to show the Class III gaming, the controls, the regulations and whatnot that goes on there so the committee could have a greater understanding of what that looks like.”

Matthew Roob with Spectrum Gaming said he spent two nights in Fremont County observing the operations at two of the three local tribal casinos and assessing “how additional gaming might impact them” – but he also noted that tribal casinos were not included in the study’s “scope” because “our mandate was from the Gaming Commission, which does not regulate or control the tribal properties.”

Regardless, McNiven said any changes to the gaming landscape in Wyoming do “largely impact” the tribal casinos, which are operated by “stakeholders in the industry and citizens of the state.”

“While there is (a) difference in sovereignty and jurisdiction … there are still impacts,” he said.