National Indian Gaming Commission
Encyclopedia
The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) is an independent federal regulatory agency within the Department of the Interior. Congress established this agency through the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act...

 in 1988. The agency has the duty to "promulgate such regulations and guidelines as it deems appropriate to implement the provisions of" the IGRA. The Commission has the ability to enforce IGRA's provisions, federal regulations, and tribal gaming regulations using its power to close Indian gaming operations and imposing civil fines. It also has the power to approve tribal gaming ordinances and oversee management contracts. The Commission is composed of a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed Chairman, and two Commissioners each of whom are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. The first Chairman of the NIGC was Tony Hope. The current Chairperson is Tracie L. Stevens, a member of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. She is the first Native American woman to chair the Commission. Stevens replaced Philip N. Hogen, a member of the Oglala Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and a former United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 in South Dakota.

A leading commentator and critic of the work of the Commission is Professor Kevin K. Washburn
Kevin K. Washburn
Kevin K. Washburn was the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law on March 3, 2009. Previously, he served as the Rosenstiel Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law. He is a former federal prosecutor, a trial attorney at the U.S...

, who served as General Counsel of the Commission between 2000 and 2002. Washburn has argued that the Commission's regulatory oversight of gaming should be expanded, but that its paternalistic oversight of tribal economic decisions should be minimized. Washburn has argued that Congress must shore up the NIGC's regulatory authority over Class III casino-style gaming, guard against regulatory capture
Regulatory capture
In economics, regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as...

 in tribal regulatory commissions, and reconsider the legitimacy of federal oversight of tribal economic decision-making.

The Commission is the only federal agency focused solely on the regulation of gambling, though it has many counterpart state and tribal regulatory agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior also have some responsibilities related to Indian gaming.

The Commission maintains its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, with six regional offices in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

; Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

; Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

; St. Paul, Minnesota; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

.
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