Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on whether the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Office of Indian Gaming has a complete list of parcels acquired in trust for Indian gaming after the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was enacted.

GAO noted that: (1) a complete list of lands acquired for gaming after the Act's passage is not readily available; (2) BIA's Office of Indian Gaming identified 18 parcels of land, totalling about 1,800 acres, that were acquired after the act's passage and received the Office's approval for gaming purposes; (3) these approvals were granted between March 1990 and August 1999 for 17 different tribes in 10 states; (4) this list does not, however, represent a complete list of parcels acquired after the act's passage on which gaming is occurring; (5) according to BIA regional officials, at least one parcel was acquired after the act was signed into law on October 17, 1988, and before the Office was created on an interim basis in 1990; (6) in addition, some tribes have acquired land for nongaming purposes and have later decided to use that land for gaming; (7) if the land converted to gaming uses is off-reservation, the conversion has to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior; and (8) according to Office officials, only acquisitions that have been approved by the Office or the Secretary are on its list.