American-Indian run casinos in Minnesota start to suffer
16th February, 2009
According to John McCarthy, Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, casino visits and revenues are down by roughly 3%-5% since the slowdown took hold last winter.
"People aren't coming as frequently, and when they do come they're not spending as much," said McCarthy.
The National Gaming Association has indicated that Minnesota is not the only state where casinos are starting to suffer. From November 2007-November 2008, the national gross gaming revenues from commercial casinos were down more than 3.5%.
If the casinos continue to be affected by the economic downturn many communities will start to suffer as well. According to the Minnesota American Indian Chamber of Commerce, the tribal reservations are (collectively) the state’s 12th largest employer.
Several of the casinos are the largest employer in their counties and many reservations rely on the profits from the 17 casinos in the state to help provide housing, medical care and to build schools.
Tad Johnson, special counsel to the Mlle Lacs Band of Ojibwe, which operates Grand Casino Hinckley and the Grand Casino Mille Lacs, said “"I guess there are some recession-proof businesses out there, but we're not in that group".
"For a while we were getting a similar number of customers but they were spending less. Then, a couple weeks ago we started to notice that there were fewer people, too."
Spokeswoman Patty Dunn said that last year, the band’s 2 casinos attracted 4.9 million visitors last year, which is 2% less than in 2007.
By Annabel
