It is no secret that Canada’s First Nation casinos generate millions of dollars in revenue each year. For the most part, this revenue is divided between the province in which the casino resides, the various First Nations that have an ownership stake in the property, and the commercial entity that operates the gaming facility. Like any business, how these various partners decide to allocate their portion of the earnings is largely up to them. How the First Nations use the money is evident, however: casino proceeds are earmarked to programs and services aimed at improving tribal life throughout Canada.

According to Sharon Stinson Henry, chief of Orillia, Ontario-based Rama Mnjikaning First Nation, which is home to Casino Rama, Canada’s largest and most successful aboriginal gaming facility with an annual revenue of C$500 million (US$500 million), the First Nations’ portion of the proceeds from the resort are invested in education, health and housing for First Nation members throughout Ontario.

“The money, which we share with other First Nations, has allowed us to expand community centers, arenas and other recreational facilities, provide opportunities for employment and even to consider joint ventures with tribes in Alberta and British Columbia,” Henry said. “Among many other improvements, we have established a culture department, because many First Nations don’t know their history and practices.”

Others are quick to point out that the benefits of First Nation gaming stretch beyond reserves and tribal services.

“The new C$35 million, 50,000-square-foot Living Sky casino under construction in Swift Current [Saskatchewan] is not just for First Nations, but for everyone,” said Morley Watson, vice chief of Saskatoon-based Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), the governing body for the province’s 74 First Nations.

The property, scheduled to open by year-end, will employ up to 200 full and part-time workers, include 220 slot machines, 10 table games and a 600-seat multi-function theatre. By Las Vegas standards, this one is just a blip, but it’s a smash hit in Swift Current. There is a wider implication—First Nations casinos attract free-spending tourists and employ staff who, in turn, support small western cities and towns, and larger ones, through taxes and “by purchasing goods and services—homes, vehicles, furniture, electronics and the list goes on,” Morley said.

Partnerships between aboriginal and non-aboriginal organizations “are an integral part of the sustainable economic development strategy for our community,” Morley added. “Our partnership arrangements have created mentoring programs, employment agreements and business developments with a number of private and public organizations. Some of our most exciting opportunities in commercial, recreational and light industrial developments are coming.”

Looking West

First Nations in Canada can do as they please on their reserves, subject to the law of the land, of course, but freedom alone doesn’t produce income to pay for better housing, education and health care in a viable community. A spirit of enterprise, business skills and management are essential, but gaming ranks high as a potentially never-dry well from which community services can be financed, and First Nations have been seeking the right to open casinos for decades.

Canada’s gaming industry is relatively young, but maturing quickly as patrons continue to respond to new casinos that open sporadically across the country. The same dynamic applies to First Nation gaming, which hit its stride in the mid-1990s when a nationwide moratorium against tribal casinos was lifted and the Ontario government and Rama Mnjikaning First Nation reached an agreement and opened cash cow Casino Rama on a reserve north of Toronto. Casino Rama became a financial hit and the Broadway of central Ontario cottage country with its year-round entertainment playbill. Other First Nations have taken note, and much like the United States, tribal gaming is slowly but surely spreading throughout Canada.

And most of this expansion appears to be occurring in western Canada. First Nations in Saskatchewan worked with the province to open its first casino in 1996, the same year Casino Rama opened in Ontario. The province is currently home to five First Nation casinos, four of which are supervised under the auspices of the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA), a non-profit subsidiary of FSIN that oversees operational services, manages table games and otherwise supervises gaming affairs at the properties. SIGA currently employees 1,150; 73 percent are aboriginal people looking to develop gaming management skills and build casino careers. Thirty-five percent of SIGA’s net profits go to the provincial General Revenue Fund and 37.5 percent to the First Nations Trust. The remaining 25 percent goes to community organ-izations through the Community Initiatives Fund.

The four SIGA casinos are Bear Claw casino in Carlyle, the Northern Lights in Prince Albert, the Gold Eagle in North Battleford and the Painted Hand in Yorkton, all of which are located on off-reserve lands. The fifth casino, the Dakota Dunes Casino which opened last August on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation reserve near Saskatoon, is a joint venture between Whitecap Dakota, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and SIGA.

These five First Nation gaming properties will be joined late this year by a sixth—the Living Sky casino at Swift Current—the only Saskatchewan casino located adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway. It is estimated more than one million vehicles will pass Living Sky casino each year.

All six Saskatchewan First Nation casinos are licensed through the provincial Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA), which in turn is responsible for the regulation and management of slots at the facilities.

Manitoba has also been a hotbed of First Nation casino development. According to Rick Josephson, executive director and CEO, Manitoba Gaming Commission, Winnipeg, proposals have been submitted for up to 12 First Nation casino projects. So far, only two have actually been developed in the province. The first was Aseneskak Casino, which opened at the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in The Pas in 2002. The project is jointly-owned by the province, the Aseneskak Casino Limited Partnership and the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation, with 70 percent of net income going to the casino operator, 27.5 percent to a First Nations Trust and 2.5 percent for First Nations’ addictions programming.

The other was the South Beach casino resort 30 minutes north of Winnipeg on the Brokenhead Ojibway First Nation at Scanterbury, which opened in 2005. It was developed and is managed by Hemisphere Companies, Minneapolis.

Alberta has also seen some First Nation development of late. The province is now home to four First Nation gaming properties, the latest being Stoney Nakoda Resort 30 minutes west of Calgary in the foothills of the Rockies, which is set to open March 2008. Stoney Nakoda will offer 299 slots, blackjack, roulette and baccarat and poker tournaments against a backdrop of majestic scenery which includes Banff, one of the province’s top ski resorts.

The other three Alberta First Nation properties are also fairly recent developments: the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Cree Nation, just west of Edmonton, which opened October 2006; the Cold Lake First Nations’ Casino Dene, which opened September 2007; and the Grey Eagle Casino on the Tsuu T’ina First Nation, west of Calgary, on December 2007.

Economic, sovereignty issues

Despite continued expansion, First Nations gaming still faces a number of challenges throughout Canada. To start, the industry faces an uphill climb against already established commercial casinos and racinos in what can be described as a gaming-saturated nation. For example, British Columbia is currently home to 15 casinos and three racinos, only one of which, Casino of the Rockies in Cranbrook, is associated with First Nations.

The situation is not much better in Ontario, which has 11 casinos and a whopping 17 racinos, only three of which involve First Nations—the aforementioned Casino Rama, the Golden Eagle Charity Casino in Kenora and the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino in Port Perry.

In Alberta, the four First Nation properties find themselves in business and expansion competition with 22 casinos and three racinos.

Meanwhile, the gaming provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec have no First Nations gaming facilities. There are no casinos of any type in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, although it was recently reported that the New Brunswick provincial government would like to establish a casino, in the hope that it will raise C$25 million in annual revenue for provincial coffers. A number of commercial and First Nation casino interests are expected to compete for this license.

The situation in New Brunswick also highlights another issue First Nation casinos have to overcome—the lack of sovereignty, at least compared to United States-based tribal casinos. Indeed, New Brunswick, like most Canadian Provinces, is dotted with aboriginal reserves, but First Nations are prohibited from establishing gaming facilities on their land without first getting approval from the provincial government. So far, despite repeated effort from the Elsipogtog First Nation in Kent County and other New Brunswick First Nation groups to get casino approval through the federal government, it appears the New Brunswick government is sticking to its plan for a single casino.

“If we cannot get any support [from the New Brunswick government], then we have to do it [develop a casino] on our own,” Chief Susan Levi-Peters of the Elsipogtog First Nation told the Canadian Press news service last November. “If we do it on our own, we exclude New Brunswick. I have no other choice.”

Any attempt by the First Nation to build a casino independent of the provincial government will likely be brought to court, observers said.

In addition to controlling tribal gaming expansion, provincial governments across Canada also keep a tight reign on casino regulation, insisting the service be performed by established provincial agencies. An argument can also be made that it is probably in First Nation’s best interests to regulate its own gaming enterprises. Indeed, if a First Nation owns and operates a casino, why shouldn’t it regulate its management, in terms of the games offered, how they are supervised and how to keep the casino operating standards high?

In some provinces, steps are being taken to make such tribal self-gaming regulation a reality. Ian Cramer, the senior business advisor for the Winnipeg-based Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs’ (AMC), said the Manitoba government is examining the findings of a joint AMC/provincial committee's feasibility study that explored the pros and cons of having First Nations regulate two existing and two planned casinos. The study also considered the creation of a First Nations Gaming Corporation (FNGC) to conduct and manage gaming operations, as well as the selection and ownership of gaming equipment, responsibility for security, budgeting and determining prize payouts in the province.

There is also a possibility that games in First Nations' casinos in Saskatchewan would be supervised by First Nations' regulators, not by provincial government employees. That seems like a small gesture, but it has symbolic importance insofar as responsibility for First Nations' casinos operating by the rules has been assigned to Indigenous Gaming Regulators in Saskatoon, part of FSIN.

Daily management, product choice, supervision, etc., all sound like the kinds of operations any business would want to control. Yet, neither First Nations nor provinces seem to be in a desperate hurry to push change; Manitoba first invited such proposals in 2000. Cramer said there is, for now, greater interest in developing a third First Nation casino near Brandon in the southwestern part of Manitoba, even though it is at least two years' away. Self-regulation can wait.

Farther west, Alberta's First Nations are not even close to self-regulation. British Columbia doesn't have the critical First Nations gaming mass and, therefore, the interest for it to matter.

Cramer said the AMC-provincial feasibility study report "brought both partys' interests closer together, although the province wanted to maintain the legislative status quo."

Albert Warson is a Canada-based freelance writer. Additional reporting and editing for this article was provided by Paul Doocey.