Abstract
U.S. Federal Indian Law is built upon presumptions that tribal sovereign power derives from land claims. But as the digital economy grows, land-based constraints on tribal authority effectively punish tribes who attempt to participate. This terrestrial notion of tribal sovereignty will also block tribes from engaging in the space economy once it matures. Land-centered sovereignty is embedded within the Indian Gaming regulatory framework. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act’s (“IGRA”) “Indian Lands” requirement and its presumption of land-based casinos make Indian Gaming an expression of terrestrial sovereignty only. Online gambling and mobile sports wagering are not land-based and therefore are not anticipated by IGRA. Tribal innovation in digital gaming is being suppressed as a result. Bound by a terrestrial gaming statute, tribes face a tradeoff that runs counter to IGRA’s policy goals: retain their self-regulatory status and remain land-based or sacrifice regulatory autonomy and offer digital gaming as a regulated commercial operator. This dilemma foreshadows the challenges tribes will face in participating in the space economy under a model of terrestrial sovereignty. Resolving this tension in the gaming context will halt excess litigation and maximize tribes’ abilities to engage as full economic and regulatory participants in new economies and spaces. A forward-looking vision unconstrained by a tribe’s terrestrial land base is needed. The present article affirms the inherent right to a futuristic sovereignty that anticipates new mechanisms of its expression and establishes that these expressions compel federal legislative action.
Recommended Citation
Aryeh Price,
Post-Terrestrial Indian Gaming,
14
UNLV Gaming L.J.
201
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/glj/vol14/iss2/4