Gambling / Lotto

see addiction

big data online privacy AI?!

see sports bet online --> prediction mkt kalshi

The Nevada Independent

Indy Gaming: Why Texas is (for now) not likely to legalize sports betting

Texas is on Las Vegas Sands' radar once again for casino legalization. However, advisory firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming said the company is...

.3 weeks ago

Yogonet

Las Vegas Sands launches bid to legalize casino gambling in Texas, files petition

It files a petition aimed at legalizing casino gambling in Texas, famously known as the Lone Star state.

.Mar 29, 2024

KXAN Austin

Sports betting in Texas: Behind the push to legalize

Former Republican Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he'll be joining the Texas Sports Betting Alliance as a spokesperson.

.Nov 17, 2022

The Texas Tribune

Wanna bet? Texas Legislature to reconsider legalizing casinos and sports betting

Given the stiff headwinds to getting any expansion in gambling passed, sports betting and casino advocates may be competing against each...

.Jan 27, 2023

Axios

Rick Perry is living his dream

The longest-serving governor in Texas history now lives on 50 acres with his best friends from college. "I've never not liked what I did in...

.May 3, 2023

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Gov. Greg Abbott: Sports betting 'just a form of entertainment'

Sports betting legislation is awaiting action in both the Texas House and Senate. The Republican governor said he is not standing in the way...

.Feb 23, 2023

Dallas News

Las Vegas Sands donated millions to Texas politicians ahead of gambling push

Las Vegas Sands has hired dozens of lobbyists and contributed millions of dollars to dozens of Texas lawmakers and legislative groups ahead of a renewed push...

.Jan 25, 2023

Baptist Standard

Texas gambling opponents ready for battle

With major professional sports teams supporting efforts to legalize sports betting and one of the world's largest gambling companies backing a multimillion-...

.Feb 9, 2021

Sports Business Journal

SBJ Betting: Which states are next to open up?

There were 11 states on it: North Carolina, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, California, Florida and New York.

.Jan 6, 2023

Gaming Today

California, Florida, Texas Sports Betting Deserts Still

California, Texas, Florida sports betting legalization is the dream of the legal gambling industry in US because of their populations.

.Jan 17, 2023

aha // GIG ECONOMY LOBBYING? // LEGAL POT EG lINDSEY gRAHAm? revolve door

axios

Meanwhile: Perry has also joined the Sports Betting Alliance, the group lobbying to legalize mobile sports gambling in Texas — though he opposed any expansion of legal gambling while in office.

"This one's different because this is not an expansion of gambling," Perry tells Axios. "There's $6 billion worth of mobile sports betting going on in the state of Texas, and the state of Texas doesn't get a dime of that. It's not regulated."

Between the lines: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said he won't bring a sports betting bill to the floor without the support of Senate Republicans. Perry says he believes Patrick will change his mind.

"I think the lieutenant governor is a true public servant," Perry says. "He does not want to be the individual who stands in the way of something that could help lower property taxes substantially."

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/beginners-luck-how-one-video-gambling-company-worked-the-odds-and-took-over-a-state/

an 320

Beginner’s luck: How one video gambling company worked the odds and took over a state ProPub

Bush voodoo economic tax cuts limited federal money to states and by extension cities, so lotto a desperate kludge to get free money? [sin tax can be less popular?]; prop 13 national tax revolt [defund the left, starve the beast to size of bathtub] means schools need money [this is how lotto sold in CA?]

https://books.google.com/books?id=kUSIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169

Gambling Cultures: Studies in History and Interpretation

edited by Jan McMillen

tax revolts --> 33 state lotto (none added after am reco war?!} Louisiana scandal civil war

deindustlization of NW --> So lost tax $ (so resist lotteries b/c of Baptists.)

nyt 2010

To the Editor:

Re “States Look for Winning Formulas to Spur Lottery Sales” (news article, Dec. 24): I find it outrageous that, at a time when states refuse to raise taxes on those who can most afford them, state lottery systems are trying to expand sales.

While states clearly need to increase revenues, lotteries are, in effect, a tax on those families that can least afford it. Study after study has shown that lottery tickets are disproportionately bought by lower-income people, and that the funds raised are treated as general revenue, regardless of the usual promises that they are used to support education.

Apparently it’s politically acceptable to tax working and poor families that are desperate for a big win, but not to tax those who have already won big through other lotteries like being born rich or gambling on the stock market.

Brent Kramer

Brooklyn, Dec. 25, 2010

The writer is an economist who has published a study on the distribution of lottery purchases in New York City.

2018

25 States Start the Year Off With a Shortfall

As state legislatures convene this month, half of them will likely have to add fixing a budget shortfall to their to-do lists. An analysis by the government relations firm MultiState reports that 25 states are facing budget shortfalls this month. That’s better than the 31 shortfalls the firm found last January.

The size of the deficits vary widely. In some places -- such as Rhode Island and Vermont -- it's small enough that very little legislative action will be needed to resolve it, writes MultiState Analyst Ryan Maness. Other states may have to consider significant changes to solve their fiscal problems. Notably, New York is facing its biggest budget gap -- $1.7 billion -- in more than half a decade.

The states with shortfalls are mostly concentrated in oil and natural resource states, the Midwest and the Northeast.

The Takeaway:Tax reform and the changes it will have on state revenue could play a big role in whatever solution states come up with. Because federal tax reform eliminates many itemized deductions, a fair number of states will seean increase in revenue unless they decide to break from the federal government and keep those income deductions for taxpayers. For example, Oregon, which is facing a $1.7 billion deficit over two years, is expecting up to a $200 million windfall this year.

History has shown that tax reform windfalls can be tempting in places that are short on revenue. Three decades ago when federal changes scaled back tax benefits, such as eliminating the deduction for credit card debt interest, states had to decide whether they would do the same. While many sought full or partial revenue offsets, nine -- all with weak revenue conditions in 1986 and 1987 -- decided to keep the windfall from the federal reforms.

Is the New Jersey Lottery a Fix-All?

After a successful bond refinancing last week that netted New Jersey $15 million in savings, State Treasurer Ford M. Scudder took the occasion to highlight the state's bipartisan Lottery Enterprise Contribution Act (LECA). Scudder credits the act, which pledged the $13.5 billion state lottery enterprise as an asset to state pension funds, with reducing the pension system's $49 billion unfunded liability and providing the system with a $1 billion annual funding stream.

Scudder notes that last month's bond refinancing generated a huge response from investors: The state was only offering $170.5 million in bonds; it received orders totaling more than twice that amount. "The strong response by investors to New Jersey's most recent bond issuances," he said in a press release, "is proof that New Jersey's fiscal future is brighter today following LECA's enactment."

The Takeaway:The lottery act is certainly creating more funding stability for New Jersey pensions than they’ve since the last century. But it’s a stretch to credit LECA with saving taxpayer dollars on bond refinancings. A far more plausible reason is historically low interest rates.

Regardless, New Jersey’s pension situation is still very much a drain on how it is perceived in the municipal market. Moody’s Investors Service rated the bonds in the recent sale one notch below the state’s A3 rating. Moody’s said its rating for New Jersey -- which is much lower than the average state rating -- was weighed down by “its significant pension underfunding [and] large and rising long-term liabilities.”

That lower rating also generates a cost to taxpayers. A look at the yield on New Jersey’s bond sale compared with an Aa2-rated children’s health system in Texas last month shows that the New Jersey bonds gave investors anywhere from a half percentage point to nearly a full point higher return than the Texas ones.

wsj 2009

another ca tax revolt?"

'I think it's going to be a tough summer, and I'm not sure of the solutions yet." So said California Republican Assembly leader Mike Villines last week as he announced that he was stepping down from his leadership post.

California Republicans have been adrift in recent years, and this quote is one indication why. The state is facing a massive deficit, talk of bankruptcy is in the air, and polls indicate that on Tuesday voters will reject the legislature's Band-Aid budget fixes. GOP leaders aren't able to challenge the Democrats who run the state legislature by offering viable solutions.

The drift, however, may be coming to an end. Mr. Villines is the second GOP legislative leader to fall this year. State Senate Republicans ousted their leader, Dave Cogdill, in February after he negotiated a budget deal that raised taxes. Something is brewing in California, and it looks a lot like the mix of politics that led to the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

The driving issue is a budget deficit that won't go away. Several months ago, lawmakers were forced to tackle a $42 billion deficit that stems from a 35% general fund spending increase since Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Mr. Davis. The deficit is $4 billion larger than the one that helped end Mr. Davis's political career. After wrangling over what to do, the governor and legislature struck a deal that raises income and sales taxes as well as car-registration fees. In all, the tax increases will cost Californians some $13 billion over the next three years.

The lawmakers punted the decision to enact much of the budget deal to voters in six ballot initiatives -- most of which are behind in the polls by nine percentage points or more. According to a recent Field Poll, 72% of voters agreed that rejecting the measures "would send a message to the governor and the state legislature that voters are tired of more government spending and higher taxes."

Voters are upset at the budget games lawmakers have played: One trick employed this year to balance the books was to send taxpayers IOUs instead of tax refunds they were owed. In an editorial, the San Diego Union Tribune captured the consensus on the budget deal by calling it "a sham, an utter sham."

With the GOP's grass-roots ablaze in anger over taxes, Republican leaders are being forced to either come out against the initiatives or be driven from positions of power. Mr. Villines is lucky he only lost his leadership post. There are four recall efforts underway aimed at wayward Republicans. Assemblyman Anthony Adams is being targeted because he voted for the budget despite taking a no-tax pledge. Assemblymen Jim Silva and Jeff Miller are facing a recall effort because they refused to go along with an earlier coup attempt against Mr. Villines. And recall petitioners are taking aim at state Sen. Bob Huff because he voted to put one of the initiatives on the ballot.

Even Democratic activists are keeping the tax hikes on the ballot at arm's length. At the state's Democratic Party convention last month, delegates voted against endorsing several of the initiatives, notwithstanding pressure from party leaders to get in line behind the budget deal. Commentators of all political stripes are mocking the measures as buck-passing frauds.

The core initiative is Proposition 1A, which would extend by two years the tax increase passed in the budget deal. State officials know that voters would never approve direct tax increases, so they dressed them up as a budget-control measure that increases the size of the state's rainy day fund and imposes spending caps.

But those caps are a "fantasy," as Jon Coupal points out. He's the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a watchdog group founded three decades ago as part of the state's last major tax revolt. The caps, he points out, allow spending to go up with state tax revenues, and they also allow the rainy-day fund to be raided on the say-so of the governor.

The remaining measures include a $9 billion earmark to the public schools that the Los Angeles Times calls a payoff to the California Teachers Association. Other initiatives propose to divert funds from previously passed state initiatives dealing with children's health services and mental health into the general fund. Another would expand the state's lottery enterprise. The only initiative that's ahead in the polls would deny pay raises to legislators and state constitutional officers in years when the state is running a deficit. That initiative is meant to gin up support for the others by convincing voters that the initiative package really means business.

But voters are smarter and have longer memories than politicians give them credit for. They seem ready to approve the last one and say "no thanks" to the others in part because there is a general feeling that taxpayers have been taken one too many times.

acadmics/scientists psychology/ anthropology hired by tech firms [Jobs apple macintosh origin?] but now optimize for addiction, eye tracking, then big dB.

Lost Wages built in a desert that relies on water piped in from Lake Powell? [tho // LA]; almost repository of nuke waste Yucca Mtn (lucked out having Reid Harry as senate leader?] [quickie divrse ranches, Mustang ranch legal prostitution

Trump grifter ran casinos into ground; presumably his Apprentice personas left that out? glamorous manhattan builder, like ayn rand hero? Rork?

pure financialization would be online poker (fantasy football?) // online charter school scams.

2 generations: new rt abramoff, reed, grover

2nd gen:

look at how many big donors are gambling: wynn, MGM, sheldon adelson (bought a newspaper to suppress press]

traditionally the mafia (along with prostitution, evade taxes on booze and cigarettes, and just extortion = extraction]

casino economy; pvt equity hedge funds are gamblers, they have faster IN connections, quants and AI to bet better and faster?

aha: addiction meets consumerism meets surveillance [// insurance Musk?] meets entertainment

opioid and suicide are diseases of despair; hazen war on gov't is war on middle class; hollowed out by outsourcing the mfg to poor countries [cf Hazen making stuff/atoms so old fashioned, easier just to manipulate numbers/electrons]. newest wave iteration is to extract money from big Data/ surveillance. NB where surveillance gets rolled out 1st: casino and undoc aliens.

extraction

predatory capitalism looks for loopholes in regulation and buffer/reservoir [often the commons?] to exploit/extract from. Indian reservations are loophole b/c exempt from Puritan/sensible gambling law, and a desperate ppl who need the tourism/ "free money" b/c they can't build their own real sustainable economy, so Abramoff and other superlobby grifters who take advantage of the dumb "monkeys"; good christian Ralph Reed scam that played one tribe against another or Nat am vs their captive evangelicals, roped in by rove on abortion culture war wedge issue (also a scam; gop does not care about abortion]

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/05/whats-behind-lobbyist-attempts-to-block-casinos-on-native-land

How Illinois is failing people addicted to ‘the crack cocaine of gambling’

Since video gambling went live in 2012, more than 30,000 video slot and poker machines have been installed in the state and gamblers have lost more than $5 billion. Yet Illinois has failed to address the issue of gambling addiction in any meaningful way.

guard uk uber gamification

...In addition to offering meaningless badges and meagre savings at the pump, ride-hailing companies have also adopted some of the same design elements used by gambling firms to promote addictive behaviour among slot-machine users. One of things the anthropologist and NYU media studies professor Natasha Dow Schüll found during a decade-long study of machine gamblers in Las Vegas is that casinos use networked slot machines that allow them to surveil, track and analyse the behaviour of individual gamblers in real time – just as ride-hailing apps do. This means that casinos can “triangulate any given gambler’s player data with her demographic data, piecing together a profile that can be used to customise game offerings and marketing appeals specifically for her”. Like these customised game offerings, Lyft tells me that my weekly ride challenge has been “personalised just for you!”

Former Google “design ethicist” Tristan Harris has also described how the “pull-to-refresh” mechanism used in most social media feeds mimics the clever architecture of a slot machine:users never know when they are going to experience gratification – a dozen new likes or retweets – but they know that gratification will eventually come.This unpredictability is addictive: behavioural psychologists have long understood that gambling uses variable reinforcement schedules – unpredictable intervals of uncertainty, anticipation and feedback – to condition players into playing just one more round.

....

adelson #1 to trump inaugr slush fund, but several others:

173 516 ORG ALLIED WALLET, INC. $1,000,000 1/10/2017

9000 WEST SUNSET BOULEVARD

LOS ANGELES CA 90069

Andy (Ahmad) Khawaja is the owner was a big supporter of Clinton ($1 mil to Priorities USA Pro-Clinton Super PAC): https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Ahmad+Khawaja&order=desc&sort=A Company forfeited $13M seized by FBI for offsite gambling

https://web.archive.org/web/20150424002027/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-237229715.html

Company forfeited $13M seized by FBI for offsite gambling

https://web.archive.org/web/20150424002027/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-237229715.html

Stephanie Brooks

9:57 PM Yesterday

provider of e-commerce merchant services and online payment processing services, enabling business owners to accept credit cards and other payments on their websites. https://t.co/r1UubS6kMr *payed dept of justice 13.3 mil in offshore gambling settlement

*check wikipedia for good links - their owner AHMAD KHAWAJA entered into a settlement agreement requiring them to forfeit $13,335,248.91 to resolve civil forfeiture claims alleging that the funds are property involved in money laundering

In 2009, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York seized more than $13 million from Ahmad Khawaja, and his companies Allied Wallet and Allied Systems, for reportedly processing proceeds for Pokerstars. In August, Khawaja and the Allied entities reportedly reached a settlement with the *U.S. Attorney’s Office involving civil forfeiture and sparing them any criminal prosecution. In September, Arizona’s Goldwater Bank, which allegedly processed transactions for Khawaja, reportedly settled with the government for about $733,000.

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/27/headlines/las_vegas_review_journal_columnist_quits_after_being_banned_from_writing_on_sheldon_adelson

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/why-did-sheldon-adelson-buy-nevadas-largest-newspaper/421035/

christie or someone made joke aboutfantasy football but huge? scam?

http://www.alternet.org/print/news-amp-politics/casinos-and-offshore-companies-are-furiously-battling-each-other

3. Almost 70% of Corporations Are Not Required to Pay ANY Federal Taxes

And that's even before tax avoidance kicks in. The 'nontaxable' [10] designation exempts 69% of U.S. corporations from taxes, thus sparing them the expense of hiring tax lawyers to contrive tax avoidance strategies.

The Wall Street Journal [11] states, "The percentage of U.S. corporations organized as nontaxable businesses has grown from about 24% in 1986 to about 69% as of 2008, according to the latest-available Internal Revenue Service data. The percentage of all firms is far higher when partnerships and sole proprietors are included."

In recent years the businesses taking advantage of the exemption include [12] law firms, hedge funds, real estate partnerships, venture capital firms, and investment banks.

4. Lotteries Pay for Corporate Tax Avoidance

This means revenue comes from the poorest residents of a community rather than from billion-dollar corporations. Many of the lottery players don't realize how bad the odds are. Fill out $2 tickets for 12 hours a day for 50 years and you'll have half a chance of winning [13].

Someastonishing factsreveal the extent of the problem. Low-income households spend anywhere from five [14]to nine [15] percent of their earnings on lotteries. A Pennsylvania survey [16] found that nearly half of low-income residents planned to gamble at a newly-opened casino. America's gambling losses in 2007 were nine times greater [17] than just 25 years before.

https://pando.com/2015/08/11/behind-scenes-donald-trump-roger-stone-show/

...

By this time, Trump had already started working with Roger Stone. Both were big fans of Roy Cohn; both enjoyed talking like Goodfellas characters in public and watching the normals swoon over their macho act. But more than anything, both were interested in cashing in on the booming casino business.

Sometimes this meant buying favors from politicians to get casinos opened; sometimes it meant running dirty campaigns to get rival casinos closed. This is what happened in 2000, when Trump and Stone were fined $250,000 for setting up a fake “family values” front group in New York, the Institute for Law and Society,to run a series of racist ads against a planned Indian casino in the Catskills that Trump feared would drain business from his casinos in Atlantic City.

So Trump and Stone whipped up anti-Indian racism to protect Trump’s business. The ad they ranfeatured a dark photo of a hypodermic needle and drug gear, and thetext warned:

The St. Regis Mohawk Indian Tribe proposes to open a gambling casino at the Monticello Race Track in Sullivan County.

How much do you really know about the St. Regis Mohawk Indians?

Are these the new neighbors we want? The St. Regis Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented. This proposed Monticello Indian Casino will bring increased crime and violence to Sullivan County.

That year, 2000, was a busy year for the Donald Trump-Roger Stone partnership.

Stone had been hired by the George W. Bush campaign to carry out two major black bag jobs that we know of: Sabotaging the Florida recount vote, using a mob of “angry” Cubans and Republican “preppies” to storm a Miami-Dade recount and stop it in its tracks, which Stone — hired for the job by James Baker — succeeded in doing.

...

So in the lead-up to the 2000 election, Roger Stonecleverly cajoled Pat Buchanan into taking control of Perot’s Reform Party, then used his friend Donald Trump to run a rival campaign against Buchanan for the Reform Party candidacy—only to drop out of the race, and attack Buchanan’s Reform Party as a cesspool full of Hitler lovers and racists. Stone inserted moles like William Von Raab, secretly funded by Trump, into Buchanan’s campaign, according to the Village Voice.

The operation wound up destroying the Reform Party’s brand and burying it for good, stinking it up too much for a late entry by Ross Perot. The Reform Party’s chairman, Pat Choate, called the “Trump/Stone operation” a “Republican dirty trick” meant to “disgust people and drive them away from the Reform Party. They were doing everything in their power to make a mess.”

The point, however, is that it worked: The Reform Party and Pat Buchanan caused no damage whatsoever to George W. Bush’s election bid in 2000, unlike Ralph Nader’s effect on Al Gore’s run.

After neutralizing the Reform Party and blocking the Florida recount with his hired “Brooks Brothers mob” Roger Stone was rewarded by President Bush by being put in charge of the Bush-Cheney 2000 transition team’sIndian Bureau Affairs appointments. Even in this, Trump did a solid for Stone, signing his name on a fake letter written by Stone in order to sink the nomination of the “wrong” Indian tribal leader who wasn’t Stone’s man. The fake Trump letter ensured that Stone’s man, Neal McCaleb, was given the job as head of Bush’s Indian Affairs Bureau instead. The Indian leader whose nomination was killed by the Trump-Stone letter later complained to theVillage Voice,

"I don't know why Trump did that,” says Martin, who'd never spoken to Trump. “I don't think he and I have ever been in the same city at the same time.

White House called weekly about casino

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2002

Former Bureau of Indian Affairs deputy Wayne Smith tells all, or a good portion of it, in a Los Angeles Times investigation into a casino-related dispute that led to his firing.

The dispute involves the Buena Vista Miwuk Rancheria in California. The BIA was trying to figure out who was the legitimate leader of the tribe. The outcome determined control of a future casino.

First, Smith says a White House aide called weekly about the case, which was under review at a BIA office in California. He identified the aide as Jennifer Farley, a deputy in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Her boss is Ruben Barrales.

A White House spokesperson told The Times: "We dismiss these assertions. They don't accurately represent the facts."

Second, Smith says he was asked to lunch by Scott W. Reed, who managed the 1996 presidential campaign of Bob Dole. The Times says Reed is a close friend of Farley.

At the lunch, Reed said he had letters that would prove embarrassing to Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and President Bush. Smith took this as blackmail, Reed claimed he was merely offering friendly advice.

But within weeks, Smith was the target of an internal investigation and the FBI began looking into it as well. Here, he alleges Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Norton's deputy chief of staff and Smith's former colleague from the California Department of Justice, told him not to mention the White House interest.

Wooldridge denies telling Smith to do that.

Smith was fired within days.

Get the Story:

A Game of Casino Hardball(The Los Angeles Times 11/5)

Username: indianz, Password: indianzcom

see lnx below

Contrary to what many Americans believe, most Native people are living in desperate conditions. Despite being given "consent" to operate casinos on their own sovereign lands, the vast majority of tribes live in a poverty that many Americans would never dream existed in their own back yards. High-stakes gambling is only allowed in specific and rather infamous locations such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City where wealth is ubiquitous so, naturally, many think tribes are rich because they've been given "permission" to operate casinos. Yes? Well, no.

True, tribes can open gaming facilities – pursuant to congressional oversight granted in the Indian gaming regulatory act (IGRA). The act was passed in 1988 as a response to a supreme court ruling on a suit brought by the state of California, which was asserting jurisdiction over tribal gaming on reservations within its boundaries because of its Public Law-280 status, a federal statute passed in 1953, which transferred civil and criminal jurisdiction to five mandatory states. PL-280 was a repudiation of the federal government's historic "special relationship" with the tribes.

Initially, this relationship had fairly distinct boundaries in the immediate wake of the first Indian cases brought before the supreme court. These cases were an attempt by chief justice John Marshall to affirm the tribes' status as sovereigns. After all, the "discoverers" signed treaties with the "discovered," and the Native tribes were mentioned in the constitution: the federal government reserved the right "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes".

Marshall was merely stating the obvious: the tribes had a government-to-government relationship with the US. However, that sovereignty had strict limitations: tribes were quasi-sovereigns, in the sense that they were in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the US resembles that of a ward to his guardian.

These first Indian cases were decided at a time when the union was nascent. Newly admitted states, Georgia in particular, were becoming increasingly hostile to tribal presence while mounting European immigration fuelled a torrential land grab, with "savage" Indians occupying precious, coveted space.

Aware of the growing recalcitrance in states such as Georgia, Justice Marshall made a declaration that was meant to forever halt state encroachment on Indian reservations: "The Cherokee Nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force." Encompassed in that authority was a responsibility to protect the Indians' right to simply "be".

Thus the trust responsibility was born, best described as one in which the federal government is charged with acting as trustee for the tribes. It forms the bedrock of American Indian law and policy, and is a responsibility owed in exchange for all that was given: land. The US government promised to provide for the health and welfare of the tribes, in exchange for what it needed to become a nation. But broken promises, one after another, have been the nature of US federal government-tribal relations.

Since the IGRA, tribal gaming on some reservations has flourished where tribes have been lucky enough to be located near densely populated areas. Although the agreement gave the tribes an allowance to operate casinos, it also created guidelines as to how some of the income must be spent. In a sense, it was both an affirmation of tribal sovereignty and an erosion of it.

Indian casinos have been crucial to improving the quality of life for some tribes, supplying not only employment for tribal members and non-Indians, but the seed money for other tribal business ventures. Additionally, tribes with successful gaming ventures now have increased political strength and less hostile relationships with their surrounding non-Indian communities.

In the state of Washington, where I reside, one tribe provides an excellent example of the opportunities casinos can create. The Muckleshoot tribe opened its casino in 1995; it provides employment for both tribal members but also non-Indians from the surrounding communities (roughly 70%). With casino revenue providing seed money, the tribe now either owns or has invested in businesses wholly unrelated to gaming. It also has a beautiful medical facility that provides medical and dental care for all Muckleshoots and their family members. Additionally, the tribe has a policy of building homes for its elders.

In a sense, it has become self-sufficient enough to provide for its own health and welfare. It has gone beyond looking out for its own as well. Last year, it gave over $4m (£2.5m) to more than 200 Washington state schools, churches and charities through the Muckleshoot Charity Fund. Its dedication to the future of its members and its perseverance in the face of the most daunting of challenges deserves nothing but the utmost respect.

The Muckleshoot Tribe is a success story. But, it is the exception – many tribes still lack access to even the most basic of human necessities. Some haven't the infrastructure to provide running water, let alone business opportunities. The federal government continues to breach its trust responsibility, evidenced by staggering statistics: Native Americans have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment and disease of any ethnic group in America. Upwards of 70,000 Navajos have no running water. Many must travel several miles to wells and are forced to haul water back to their homes for family and livestock, while neighbouring non-Indian communities spring up in the desert like oases, so proud are they of their green lawns and swimming pools.

Most Americans are labouring under the mistaken notion that Indian tribes are wealthy because they've been "given" a special privilege to operate casinos. The truth is far different – only a small minority of tribes have truly successful reservation economies. Since the advent of tribal gaming, conditions on most reservations have remained the same. The small number of tribes reaping the benefits of gaming overshadow the majority of tribes that can't, and don't.

Aware of the growing recalcitrance in states such as Georgia, Justice Marshallmade a declaration that was meant to forever halt state encroachment on Indian reservations: "The Cherokee Nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force." Encompassed in that authority was a responsibility to protect the Indians' right to simply "be".

Thus the trust responsibility was born, best described as one in which the federal government is charged with acting as trustee for the tribes. It forms the bedrock of American Indian law and policy, and is a responsibility owed in exchange for all that was given: land. The US government promised to provide for the health and welfare of the tribes, in exchange for what it needed to become a nation. But broken promises, one after another, have been the nature of US federal government-tribal relations.

In a sense, it has become self-sufficient enough to provide for its own health and welfare. It has gone beyond looking out for its own as well. Last year, it gave over $4m (£2.5m) to more than 200 Washington state schools, churches and charities through the Muckleshoot Charity Fund. Its dedication to the future of its members and its perseverance in the face of the most daunting of challenges deserves nothing but the utmost respect.

The Muckleshoot Tribe is a success story. But, it is the exception – many tribes still lack access to even the most basic of human necessities. Some haven't the infrastructure to provide running water, let alone business opportunities. The federal government continues to breach its trust responsibility, evidenced by staggering statistics: Native Americans have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment and disease of any ethnic group in America. Upwards of 70,000 Navajos have no running water. Many must travel several miles to wells and are forced to haul water back to their homes for family and livestock, while neighbouring non-Indian communities spring up in the desert like oases, so proud are they of their green lawns and swimming pools.

Brief History of Indian Casinos

1979 - Birth of Indian Gaming

The Seminole Tribe opened a high-stakes bingo hall on their reservation at Hollywood, Florida on December 14, 1979 and the state tried immediately to shut it down. This was followed by a series of court battles leading to a final decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1981. The court ruled in favor of the Seminoles affirming their right to operate their bingo hall.

(Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Butterworth)

1987 - U.S. Supreme Court Recognizes Indian GamingThe United States Supreme Court ruled that federally-recognized tribes could operate casinos outside state jurisdiction because the tribes were considered sovereign entities by the United States and the gaming operation must not be directly prohibited in that state.

(California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians)

1988 - Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to establish the rules for the operation and regulation of Indian gaming.

The Act provides that a federally-recognized tribe may conduct gaming activities within the limitations of a compact negotiated between the tribe and the state and approved by the U.S. Department of Interior.

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act divides gaming into three classes:

Class I Gaming

Defined as "traditional tribal gaming and social gaming" with minimal prizes.

There is no regulation outside of the tribal government.

Class II Gaming

Defined as gambling played exclusively against other players and not the house.

Examples are bingo, poker, and other “non-banked” card games.

These games are permitted on Indian land as long as they are legal elsewhere in the state.

.

Class III Gaming

Defined as gambling played against the casino.

Includes slot machines, blackjack, craps, roulette, and "all forms of gaming that are not class I gaming or class II gaming."

Requires a compact with the state.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Bureau of Indian AffairsThe Bureau of Indian Affairs handles the administration and management of 55.7 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives. There are 562 federal recognized tribal governments in the United States.

http://www.doi.gov/bia/

Committee of Indian Affairs

This Senate committee has jurisdiction to study the unique problems of American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native peoples including economic development, land management, trust responsibilities, education, health care, and claims against the United States.

http://indian.senate.gov

National Indian Gaming AssociationThe National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) is a non-profit Indian gaming association of tribal members and industry members. Its mission is to protect the welfare of tribes seeking self-sufficiency through Indian gaming.

http://www.indiangaming.org

National Indian Gaming Commission

The NIGC was established by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 as a federal agency to investigate, audit, review, and approve Indian gaming ordinances.

http://www.nigc.gov

wiki

Native American gaming refers to casinos, bingo halls, and other gambling operations on Indian reservations or other tribal land in the United States. Because these areas have tribal sovereignty, states have limited ability to forbid gambling there, as codified by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. As of 2011, there were 460 gambling operations run by 240 tribes,^[1] with total annual revenue of $27 billion.^[2]

[hide]

1 History

2 Industry
- 2.1 California Gaming
- 2.2 Connecticut Gaming

History

Further information: Tribal sovereignty in the United States

In the early 1970s, Russell and Helen Bryan, a married Chippewa couple living in a mobile home on Indian lands in northern Minnesota, received a property tax bill from the local county, Itasca County.^[3] The Bryans had never received a property tax bill from the county before. Unwilling to pay it, they took the tax notice to local legal aid attorneys at Leech Lake Legal Services, who brought suit to challenge the tax in the state courts. The Bryans lost their case in the state district court, and they lost again on appeal in a unanimous decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court. They then sought review in the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted review, and in a sweeping and unanimous decision authored by Justice Brennan, the Supreme Court held not only that states do not have authority to tax Indians on Indian reservations, but that they also lack the authority to regulate Indian activities by Indians on Indian reservations.^[3] As Gaming Law Professor Kevin K. Washburn has explained, the stage was now set for Indian gaming. Within a few years, enterprising Indians and tribes began to operate Indian bingo operations in numerous different locations around the United States.

Under the leadership of Howard Tommie, the Seminole Tribe of Florida built a large high-stakes bingo building on their reservation near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The tribe planned for the bingo hall to be open six days a week, contrary to Florida state law which only allows two days a week for bingo halls to be open, as well as going over the maximum limit of $100 jackpots.^[4] The law was enacted from the charity bingo limits set by Catholic Churches. The sheriff of Broward County, where the Indian reservation lies, made arrests the minute the bingo hall opened, and the tribe sued the county (Seminole Tribe v. Butterworth), stating that Indian tribes have sovereignty rights that are protected by the federal government from interference by state government. A District court ruled in favor of the Indians, citing Chief Justice John Marshall in Worcester v. Georgia. Here began the legal war of Indian gaming with a win for the Seminoles.

Controversy arose when Indians began putting private casinos, bingo rooms, and lotteries on reservation lands and began setting gaming prizes which were above the maximum legal limit of the state. The Indians argued for sovereignty over their reservations to make them immune from state laws such asPublic Law 280, which granted states to have criminal jurisdiction over Indian reservations.^[5] States were afraid that Indians would have a significant competitive advantage over other gambling establishments in the state which were regulated, which would thus generate a vast amount of income for tribes.

In the late 1970s and continuing into the next decade, the delicate question concerning the legality of tribal gaming and immunity from state law hovered over the Supreme Court.^[6] The Court addressed the potential gambling had for organized crime through the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. A report by the Department of Justice presented to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs on March 18, 1992 concluded that through several years of FBI investigation, that organized crime had failed to infiltrate Indian gaming and that there was no link between criminal activity in Indian gaming and organized crime ^[5]^

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In the early 1960s, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, near Indio, California, were extremely poor and did not have much land because of neglected 1850s treaties by state senators. As Stuart Banner states, the Cabazon Band and the neighboring Morongo Reservation had "some HUD buildings and a few trailers, but that was about it.^[7] There was nothing really there. The people simply didn't have a lot." The Cabazon Band turned to casino operations, opening bingo and poker halls in 1980. Shortly thereafter, the Indio police and the Riverside County Sheriff shut down the gambling halls and arrested numerous Indians while seizing any cash and merchandise held in the tribe's possession. The Cabazon Band sued in federal court (California v. Cabazon Band) and won, as did the Seminole Tribe in Florida.^[7] Although the tribe won in the lower courts, the Supreme Court reviewed the case in 1986 to reach a decision over whether Indian reservations are above state law. The Court again ruled that Indian gaming was to be regulated exclusively by Congress and the federal government, not state government; with tribal sovereignty upheld, the benefits of gaming became available to many tribes.

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Main article: Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

In 1988 Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) (signed by President Ronald Reagan) which kept tribal sovereignty to create casino like halls, but the states and Indians must be in Tribal-State compacts and the federal government has the power to regulate the gaming.^[8] These compacts have been used by state officials to confiscate Indian casino revenue which serves as a "special" tax on Indian reservations. Essentially, the tribes still have "exclusive right" to all classes of gaming except when states do not accept that class or it clashes with federal law.^[9]

Class III Indian gaming became a large issue for the states and federal government, because of these court cases, as Congress debated over a bill for Indian gaming called the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

There are currently a number of lawsuits pending which challenge the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on constitutional grounds (see e.g. Warren v. United States)

When President Reagan signed the IGRA, Indian gaming revenue skyrocketed from $100 million in 1988 to $16.7 billion in 2006.^[10] Following the IGRA, the National Indian Gaming Commission was created as a federal agency in 1988 to regulate high-stakes Indian gaming.

The Commission consists of three members: a chairman who is appointed by the US President with consent of the Senate, and two associate members appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.^[11] Each member serves a three year term and must pass a detailed background check by the US Attorney General.

The NIGC withholds certain powers over Class II and Class III gaming. These include budget approval, civil fines, fees, subpoenas, and permanent orders. The NIGC monitors Class II gaming on Indian lands on a continuing basis through inspection, investigation, access to records, and contracts.^[12] As for Class III gaming, all contracts must be approved by the chairman of the NIGC. 200 of the 562 federally recognized tribes created Class III gaming of large casinos and high jackpots.^[9]

This rise of gaming not only brought great revenue, but also corruption. In January 2006, a court case involving lobbyists convicted of felonies such as conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion. This was known as the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. These lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist, and Michael Scanlon, bribed members of Congress when lobbying for Indian casinos then they over charged their Indian clients; this generated around $90 million in fees from the Indians.^[13]

2006 Legislation

In 2006, Congress introduced legislation to protect their own casino interests from those tribes that are outside reservations. Further, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has faced increasing pressure to tighten regulatory policy and oversight of casino approvals. In particular, the BIA has been instructed by Congress to implement new procedures after two decades of IGRA's existence. These procedures would allow local communities to have more influence in the siting of casinos in their community, and would make the process of casino approval more transparent. To many tribes, however, the proposed regulations will further encroach on tribal sovereignty.

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Statistics provided by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), indicate that there are 460 Indian gaming establishments in the US.^[14] These casinos are operated by 240 federally-recognized tribes and offer Class I, Class II and Class III gaming. Gaming is divided into 3 classes. Class I and Class II are traditional Indian gaming such as bingo halls, poker halls, and lotteries, and requires no license. Class III gambling has high jackpots and high-stake games such as casinos, jai alai, and racetracks, and states feared that organized crime would infiltrate the Class III gaming on their reservations. The revenue generated in these establishments was close to $27.1 billion in 2011 up from $12.8 billion in 2001. The states with largest revenues in 2011 were Sacramento ($6.9 billion) and Washington D. C. ($6.7 billion).^[15] The Native American gaming industry didn’t show the negative tendencies during and after economic crisis of 2007-2009, in contrast to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Tribal casinos in the eastern US generated roughly $3.8 billion in FY02. Those in the Central US recorded gross revenues of approximately $5.9 billion, while those in the Western US generated nearly $4.8 billion. Most of the revenues generated in the Indian gaming are from casinos located in or near large metropolitan areas. Currently, 12% of Indian gaming establishments generate 65% of Indian gaming revenues. Indian gaming operations located in the populous areas of the West Coast (primarily California) represent the fastest growing sector of the Indian gaming industry. As suggested by the above figures, the vast majority of tribal casinos are much less financially successful, particularly those in the Midwest and Great Plains. Many tribes see this limited financial success as being tempered by decreases in reservation unemployment and poverty rates, although socioeconomic deficits remain.

As of 2008 there are 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States, many of which have chosen not to game.

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The Chumash tribe in Santa Barbara County is notable in that it demonstrates interaction and collaboration between the tribe and the surrounding non-Indian population of the Santa Ynez Valley. The Chumash tribe, who has seen success as a result of their gaming operations, planned to expand its current facilities but have recently scaled back. The first structure, built in 1994, was modest and resembled a tent, but has grown to three large, albeit temporary, rooms. The casino serves 3,500 people, mostly local Hispanics, per day and employs 750, mostly non-Indian, employees. There has been pressure from the non-Indian community not to expand because the entire surrounding area feels negative effects from the gaming enterprises. The Santa Ynez Valley non-Indian community is impacted aesthetically and economically. Many do not welcome the 72,000-square-foot (6,700 m²) hotel and 155,000-square-foot (14,400 m²) casino, and many predict a strain on themselves when their community must expand emergency services. Many are aware of other problems that will arise such as increased pollution, traffic, and criminal activity. The Chumash have agreed to scale back. The project is unprecedented in that the funding for it is financed through bonds sold to mutual fund and insurance fund managers and is “the first time in California that a bank has underwritten a bond sale for an IndianThe largest casino in the state of California is the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula,with 3,000+ slot machines and approximately 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m²) of gaming space.^[16] Other notable gaming operations in California include the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa, and the Chumash Casino.

An unscientific survey of one of the globe's largest novelty betting operations this week suggests that a variety of unorthodox and environmentally themed wagers are flourishing. Gamblers with money to burn can currently play the odds on whether Arctic sea ice will hit record lows this year, for example, or whether 2013 will prove to be the warmest year on record, as measured by the World Meteorological Organization (current odds on that: 7/2).

OF course co's are putting more conventional betas to profit on climate change]

And these, of course, join the wider menu of oddball bets -- from the likelihood that Robert Downey Jr. will win an Oscar for best actor before 2017, or who will become the next James Bond. (The smart money appears to be on Michael Fassbender at the moment, while P. Diddy is listed as a long shot.)

So far, the long-debated Keystone XL pipeline project appears to have escaped the attention of the mostly European purveyors of quirky stakes, though its inherent unpredictability would seem to make it a fine question on which to hang a bet. After all, it has now been roughly five years since the project was first proposed by the Canadian pipeline conglomerate TransCanada, and the particulars are by now familiar to any reader of this column: The conduit would have the capacity to deliver up to 590,000 barrels per day of a chemically diluted Canadian petroleum product known as dilbit (short for diluted bitumen) across Montana's border with Canada and on downward to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Because it crosses that international border, the U.S. State Department -- and by association, President Barack Obama -- must weigh its usefulness to America before issuing a permit, something that the American government has done, for better or worse (depending on your perspective), rather routinely in the past.

....f on family rept 2007 http://media.citizenlink.com/pdfs/fosi/gambling/Focus-Chad-Hills_2007_NCALG_Conf_Pres.pdf===

1981 Abramoffgraduates from Brandeis University. Fresh off his triumphs working on Reagan's 1980 Presidential campaign, Abramoff comes to Washington and successfully runs for National Chairman of the College Republicans. While Chairman he collaborates with two rising young party stars: Grover Norquist, who will lead the conservative anti-tax crusade, and Ralph Reed, the future Executive Director of the Christian Coalition.

1984 Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, Texas is elected to the House of Representatives. Abramoff addresses the Republican National Convention.

1986 Abramoff graduates from Georgetown University's school of law and moves back to California to start his own film production company, Regency Entertainment.

1989 Abramoff produces the movie RED SCORPION, a critically-panned, anti-communist potboiler, reportedly made with the support of the apartheid South African Government and its military forces.

1994 In the 1994 mid-term elections, the "Republican Revolution," the GOP takes control of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. Abramoff moves back to Washington and joins the law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. In the company's press release (PDF) announcing his hire, Abramoff's Preston Gates touts his already "strong ties" with incoming House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

1995 Abramoff begins work for the first of his tribal clients with gambling interests, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, a niche that will eventually earn him the moniker "Casino Jack". He also begins working for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, fighting against any efforts to apply U.S. Immigration and minimum wage laws on the U.S. territory.

1996 The U.S. Family Network is founded by Tom DeLay's chief of staff, Ed Buckham. While the non-profit's stated mission is to restore "moral fitness" to American life, it's very first contribution comes from Jack Abramoff.

1997 Lawmakers, aides and journalists take numerous trips to the Marianas, invited by Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team, and paid for by the government of the Commonwealth. On one such trip, DeLay calls the lobbyist "one of my closest and dearest friends." (Read the speech.) (PDF)

After his own visit to Saipan, Senator Frank Murkowski (R- Alaska) says he's witnessed "living conditions that simply should not exist in the United States of America." As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, he introduces a bill to extend the protection of U.S. immigration and minimum wage laws to the workers of the Northern Marianas. The legislation would eventually pass by unanimous consent in the Senate, but Tom DeLay would repeatedly keep it from even being brought to the floor for debate in the House of Representatives.

Ralph Reed leaves the Christian Coalition to form Century Strategies, a political consulting/public affairs firm which claims to only accept clients who oppose abortion, higher taxes and gambling.

1999: Abramoff and Reed begin a campaign to protect the Choctaw casino against competition. Coordinating with Abramoff, Reed organizes Christians to oppose threats to Abramoff's client on moral grounds. In return, Abramoff funnels over $1 million of the Choctaw's payments to Reed through Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, allegedly to hide its origin.

(See how Abramoff made payments to Reed's company through a series of intermediaries from 1999 through 2002, including Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform)

2000: Abramoff continues to act as a congressional travel agent, arranging junkets that include Tom DeLay's 2000 trip to the world famous golf course at Saint Andrews, Scotland. In violation of House ethics rules, DeLay's airfare is billed to Abramoff's credit card. (Read the credit card bill: page 1, page 2, page 3) (PDF) The Center for Public Integrity investigates "Traveling on the Abramoff Plan"

2001: After a partner warns him that he'll soon end up "dead, disgraced or in jail," Abramoff leaves Preston Gates to join another firm, Greenberg Traurig, bringing along many of his lucrative clients. Abramoff begins working with former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon and soon forms a partnership they dub "Gimme Five". The plan is to secretly over-bill their tribal clients millions of dollars and split the windfall.

May: Grover Norquist helps arrange a meeting between at least four of Abramoff's clients with the newly-elected President George W. Bush.

Tom DeLay establishes TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority)in an effort to wrest control of the Texas House of Representatives from Democrats.

2002 While Abramoff and Scanlon collect millions in fees from Indian tribes (Watch NOW WITH BILL MOYERS's coverage of the Tigua Speaking Rock Casino. Tom DeLay's TRMPAC, helps the GOP take control of the Texas House of Representatives for the first time in 130 years.

Abramoff arranges another golfing junket to Saint Andrews, Scotland this time for Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, General Services Agency Chief of Staff David Safavian and Ralph Reed.

2003: In Washington, Tom DeLay is elevated to House Majority Leader. In Texas, Republicans use their new majority in the state legislature to pass an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan that threatens several Democratic incumbents in the U.S. House of Representatives. The final details of the gerrymandering are personally brokered by DeLay.

In Louisiana, an audit of the Coushatta Tribe's finances uncovers $32 million in payments for "lobbying" related costs over the course three years. The vast majority was paid to Abramoff and Scanlon through Scanlon's company and non-profits controlled by the pair.

2004: February 22: A front page WASHINGTON POST expose reveals that Abramoff and Scanlon have been paid $45 million from four casino owning tribal clients. (Read "A Jackpot from Indian Gaming.") Soon after, Abramoff leaves Greenberg Traurig and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee announces it will begin an investigation. "Gimme Five" — Investigation of Tribal Lobbying Matters (PDF)

Read the Pulitzer Prize winning investigation by the Washington Post on the Abramoff Scandal:

September 29: Abramoff asserts his Fifth Amendment privilege in testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

November 2: The DeLay-backed gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts leads to five new Texas GOP seats in the House.

November 17: Michael Scanlon asserts his Fifth Amendment rights in his testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

2005: September 28: DeLay temporarily steps aside as House majority leader after being indicted by a Texas grand jury on conspiracy charges relating to the 2002 Texas state elections.

October 3: A separate Texas grand jury indicts DeLay(link on charges of conspiracy to launder money and money laundering relating to TRMPAC's activities in the 2002 elections. (Read the indictment; Read TRMPAC IRS filings.

October 5: David Safavian, now head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget, is indicted on charges of lying to federal investigators in the Abramoff corruption investigation.

November 21: Michael Scanlon pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agrees to pay back more than $19 million to the tribal clients he and Abramoff have defrauded in their "Gimme Five" scheme. (Read the Scanlon plea) (PDF)

2006: January 3: Abramoff pleads guilty to federal conspiracy, tax evasion and fraud charges and agrees to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation of possible corruption of public officials, including members of Congress. (Read the Abmranoff plea) (PDF)

January 7: Days later, DeLay announces he will not seek to reclaim the Majority Leader position in the House. He will run for re-election in Texas, however, in order "to clear my name of the baseless charges leveled against me."

April 4: Just days after he is listed as Representative #2 in another former aide's guilty plea in the spreading scandal, Delay makes the sudden announcement that he will resign from the congress. (Read the Rudy plea) (PDF)

May 8: Neil Volz, a former aide to Congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio), pleads guilty to conspiracy, admitting that he worked with Abramoff and others to commit fraud.

June 20: David Safavian is found guilty of lying and obstructing justice by a federal jury.

September 15: Republican congressman Bob Ney of Ohio agrees to plead guilty to illegally accepting tens of thousands of dollars in trips, meals, drinks and tickets.

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