Panel narrows lists of tribes to review

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1998 | 11:36 a.m.

A National Gambling Impact Study Commission research subcommittee asked a consulting agency performing a survey of national gambling laws to finalize the number of Indian gaming operations it plans to study within the next two days.

Concerned that the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, or ACIR, keeps changing the number of Indian gambling operations it plans to survey, subcommittee members asked research coordinator Donna Swartz to decide how many tribal operations will be included in the survey by Thursday morning at the latest.

ACIR is compiling a comprehensive database of national, state and local gambling laws and regulations for the commission. The ACIR is also charged with analyzing the way regulations and laws differ between jurisdictions, and how they are actually enforced in different jurisdictions.

The ACIR initially agreed to perform the survey for $274,000. The survey was to include 250 separate tribal gaming operations. But concerns that a sample of 250 operations would result in an overabundance of raw data and limit time for rigorous analysis, the ACIR and commission staff agreed to reduce the sample first to about 200, then to 150 to 160.

Surveying all of the estimated 305 Class III Indian gaming operations would have pushed the cost of the ACIR study to $1 million, said Commission Executive Director Tim Kelly.

That was news to commissioner John Wilhelm.

"Along the way here we've gone from all to 250 ... to 200 plus a few," said Wilhelm. "That's news to me."

Commissioners asked Swartz to determine the minimum sized sample that will generate enough data but allow time for analysis.