By Matthew L. Morgan, Chairman, Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association
Tribal gaming has always been a forward-thinking industry. We are in the business of entertaining people, which necessitates us constantly looking for the newest technology, gaming offering, or amenity for the enjoyment of our customers. This continued ingenuity and hard work have made our many years of success come to fruition. However, it is important that we all remember that it did not start with us. I especially address this column to those newer in their careers, who may not realize that without the foundation laid by an entire generation of men and women who have come before, the tribal gaming industry as we know it would not exist.
In recent months, the tribal gaming industry has lost some of its luminaries, visionaries, and warriors whose generation started our industry from nothing and who fought fearlessly and tirelessly to move tribal gaming — and Indian Country — forward.
It might be hard for many to imagine those early years, back in the 1970s, when a handful of tribes started offering bingo. Many of us can recite the sequence of events — states threatened to close tribal high stakes bingo operations, the tribes sued in federal court and won cases like Seminole Tribe v. Butterworth (1979) and California v. Cabazon Band (1987). Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, and from there, the spread of tribal governmental gaming began as more tribes started this new economic engine by offering bingo and negotiating gaming compacts with states.
Those are the events. That is the history. But I encourage you to never lose sight of the people. It was this generation who made everything we have possible, taking every step toward victory and showing us how to persevere through setbacks. They never gave up, never gave in, and never ceded an inch in their pursuit of tribal gaming as a means for self-determination and self-sufficiency. True leaders. Visionary thinkers who saw the possibilities: Tribes could raise revenue, improve the lives of their people, and better their communities. And we have.
As we close out 2025, a year in which so many of our trailblazers have left us, I humbly challenge you, especially our younger generations, to continue what these men and women have started. Let us all advance our industry as tirelessly and fearlessly as they did, in their honor.
