Tribal Casino Impacts on American Indian Household Well-Being

Robin J. Anderson, U.S. Census Bureau

The Indian Gaming Regulation Act was passed in 1988, and in subsequent years, tribal gaming revenues increased dramatically. However, it has been unclear how tribal casinos impact different types of American Indian households’ well-being. I apply a difference-in-difference methodology to 1990 and 2000 data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to address this question. When casino effects are split by householders’ sex and education, they are primarily on female-headed households. Casinos significantly increase household per capita income of female-headed households without a high school degree by $891 to $1859. However, casinos reduce per capita assistance income of all female-headed households. Casinos also reduce deep poverty rates of female-headed households with at least a high school degree by seven to eight percentage points and near poverty rates of female-headed households with less than a high school degree by 11 to 14 percentage points.