Crandon, WI (October 22, 2025) — The Indian Gaming Association (IGA) leadership, including Acting Chairman David Bean, and Executive Director Jason Giles, along with Kevin Leecy, Director of Membership and Development, met with the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe last week to reaffirm the organization’s commitment to advancing tribal sovereignty, protecting tribal economies, and continuing the legacy of the late Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr.
The visit underscored the IGA’s long-standing partnership with Wisconsin’s gaming tribes, its ongoing efforts to build upon membership initiatives, and its renewed focus on unity, education, and advocacy in the face of growing national challenges to Indian Country.
“Chairman Stevens taught us that our work begins and ends with protecting our people and our sovereignty,” said Acting Chairman David Bean. “This visit is about honoring those commitments, ensuring that our tribal enterprises remain strong, that our youth have opportunity, and that our communities continue to thrive through self-determination. The IGA will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with tribes like the Forest County Potawatomi to defend what we’ve built together.”
The meeting focused heavily on emerging threats facing tribal government gaming, including unregulated prediction markets, also known as prediction contracts, which have recently surfaced as a major concern across the industry.
These online operations, which function outside federal or tribal oversight, pose risks to both tribal and commercial gaming markets, threatening to undermine decades of regulated progress made under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
“Prediction markets didn’t exist in our conversations a year ago — now they’re one of the greatest threats to the integrity of our entire gaming system,” said Executive Director Jason Giles. “Through partnerships that Chairman Stevens helped establish, we’ve built strong alliances with the American Gaming Association and major industry operators to push back on unregulated gaming. Together, we’re protecting consumers, defending sovereignty, and ensuring fair competition.”
To strengthen tribal advocacy, in 2023, IGA reactivated the joint Task Force with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Historically focused on single-issue policy, the Task Force has been expanded to address multiple emerging issues impacting Indian Country, from federal budget cuts to regulatory overreach.
The Task Force will officially unveil a new set of guiding principles at NCAI’s Annual Convention in Seattle next month. These principles are centered on protecting Tribal Sovereignty under IGRA and federal law, following the law and ensuring accountability from federal regulators and commercial entities, and protecting consumers from unregulated, unaccountable gaming practices. “This is about ensuring that tribal voices lead the national conversation on gaming policy,” Giles added. “We’re reasserting our rightful place at the table and carrying forward the foundation that Ernie built — unity through action and advocacy.”
Both Bean and Giles emphasized that this work reflects a continuation of Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr.’s lifelong mission to safeguard tribal sovereignty, uplift communities, and foster collaboration across the gaming industry.
Under his 24-year leadership, Indian gaming grew into the largest segment of the U.S. gaming industry, generating nearly $50 billion in annual revenues while supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and reinvesting billions into schools, healthcare, infrastructure, and cultural preservation.
“Everywhere we go, we hear stories of how Chairman Stevens mentored, inspired, and empowered others,” said Bean. “We are committed to fulfilling the obligations he set in motion, visiting communities, educating lawmakers, and protecting the tribal economies that sustain our families and our way of life.”