In the United States, Native American tribes are treated as sovereign nations. In the case of the Hoover Dam, supplier of the energy to run Las Vegas’ casinos’ lights, water rights for these sovereign nations differed greatly from those water rights received by the Upper and Lower Basin states involved in the construction and operation of the Hoover Dam and rest of the dam system. This status of sovereign nation also means that any revenue earned from the casinos so often found on reservations cannot be taxed by the state or federal government. Developments in the world of internet gambling, however, are threatening this income stream. Internet poker is daily becoming more popular, and there is a movement to legalize it under state and federal laws, which would allow it to be taxed. Should this come to fruition, it would threaten the livelihood of many tribes. For more on what this movement means for Native American casinos, please visit:

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.