While Indian gaming faces challenges from the Trump Administration, sweepstakes operators, and prediction markets, Ernie Stevens Jr. remained calm but resolute as he talked about the year ahead, and urged tribal leaders to work hard and lobby their members of Congress to stand up for their sovereignty.
Stevens, re-elected last week to serve his 12th two-year term as chairman of the 40-year-old Indian Gaming Association, said tribal gaming has faced and overcome plenty of obstacles. There was no name-calling or panic displayed during an interview with CDC Gaming as the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention in San Diego came to a close.
That was in contrast to speakers at the convention warning about the threats to tribes from the Trump administration, which has already rescinded a gaming approval for a northern California tribe.
There’s a lot at stake. Gaming funds many tribal services, from health care to education. During Stevens’s tenure, Indian gaming revenues have soared from $11 billion in 2000 to over $49.1 billion in 2024, solidifying tribal gaming as the largest segment of the gaming industry in the U.S.
“The first two months or two of this Administration look pretty energetic, but we’ve had challenges before,” Stevens said. To say this Administration is going to be uphill for us, that’s fairly accurate. We’re educators and our Board made it clear to us that we need that now more than ever. They know me in the House and Senate. You can’t miss a 6-foot-4, 300-pound, 65-year-old Indian. But the voice from Indian Country has to come from elected officials. The chairmen and council members from all over Indian Country are the most effective lobbyists and educators. My son Brandon, vice chairman of the Oneida Nation, is more effective when he’s (in Washington). That’s what we have to do in this new administration: Sit down and help them understand tribal sovereignty, tribal government, what a $41.9 billion industry does for the economy, and how 700,000 jobs we create directly or indirectly make the world a better place.”
Asked what keeps him up at night, Stevens said he’s neither worried nor scared. While come at tribes in order to get at the front of the line, Stevens said he’s not “afraid to speak my piece.” That includes pointed out that the U.S. Constitution was modeled after the Iroquois Confederacy of Six Native American nations.
“Whether they want to dilute our role or rights, they’re going to have to change the law,” Stevens said. “If they think they can do that, we’re going to do our best to get them not to first. If they do, then we’ll have to defend ourselves every step of the way.”
Stevens made it clear that he’s not calling out the Trump administration for doing anything specific and he wouldn’t guess what obstacles tribes could face over the next four years.
“I won’t speculate, but we’ve seen it all in our days,” Stevens said. “We have to protect the rights of our communities and we have to build forward for seven generations. That’s the tradition we were taught. If I’m to take care of my grandchildren and their grandchildren, I have to protect our rights as a government. We stand by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (passed in 1988). They have to change the law to change us.”
When asked about threats from sweepstakes operators and prediction markets operating online gaming and sports betting in Indian Country, Stevens said he won’t give them “the time of day.” He recalled that when tribes first started to offer casino gaming, governments wanted to crack down and dictate the rules.
“As much as we did great things — all free of corruption, illegal gambling, and 100% taxed — people have different opinions and viewpoints,” Stevens said. “We have to go by the law and everybody else should too. That’s our position. We’re not going out and attacking anybody. We want to ask why we have to adhere to all the aspects of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and they don’t fall under any rules.”
IGRA gave tribes the latitude to engage in new technology and tribes will do that, but they won’t do anything illegal and inappropriate, Stevens noted.
“A lot of the folks I work for are totally put out with how Native Americans live to the letter of the law, while in so many places in this world there’s illegal gambling and no one is doing anything about it. They don’t have to worry about us. It seems like a double standard.”
About his re-election in which he was unopposed yet again (only two of his elections were contested), Stevens, a member of the Oneida Nation who has offices in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C, said he doesn’t mind getting voted back in by acclamation,
“I appreciate that and don’t take anything for granted,” Stevens said. “Everything I do is part of my campaign. I work hard every day and the only time I really unpack my bag is to switch to a new one. I go through a suitcase every two to three months, because the airlines beat them up.”
Stevens called this year’s trade show “amazing,” but he’s so busy, he doesn’t have time to see it all. He joked he saw more at ICE Barcelona earlier this year and at G2E in Las Vegas in October.
He offered his final thoughts for Indian Country on how he wants people to work and contribute to overcome obstacles they’re facing to make a difference for tribal nations.
“My message is that if you run into a roadblock and are having a struggle, then we put our minds together and dig down and do the research. That’s how my father and mother That’s how my grandparents did it. If you run into an obstacle, you have to work through it. Research. Study. Lobby and educate. That’s what we do. We bear down and go to work.”
