The National Indian Gaming Commission recently announced it is lowering the preliminary annual fee rates for Indian gaming operations.
Effective March 1, the annual fee rates are:
• 0.00 percent for tier 1 operations.
• 0.062 percent for tier 2 operations.
• 0.031 percent of Class II revenues for self-regulating tribes under 25 CFR part 518.
“The tier 2 preliminary annual fee rate represents the lowest fee rate adopted by the commission in the last five years,” Commission Chairman Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri said in a news release. “We are able to reduce the rate and work efficiently to expand our commitment to compliance with the mandates of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the NIGC’s regulations.
“We will continue to provide new and increased services to the tribal gaming industry and our regulatory partners, such as new training and technical assistance for rural, smaller operations, to ensure that they have all the tools they need to stay in compliance,” he added in the release. “We also will continue to focus on our priorities of staying ahead of the technology curve and working to protect against gamesmanship on the backs of tribes.”
The NIGC is funded by tribal nations through Indian gaming operation revenue pursuant to IGRA and its regulations. The agency bases fees on a percentage of assessable gross gaming revenues, which are paid quarterly to the agency.
The commission also annually reviews the cost of processing fingerprint cards and sets a fee based on the amount charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and commission processing costs. The commission continues to hold the NIGC fingerprint processing fee at $21 per card, as adopted last year on March 1, 2015.
The Indian gaming industry includes more than 450 gaming establishments, associated with nearly 242 tribes across 28 states. The commission’s dedication to compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ensures the integrity of the $28.5 billion Indian gaming industry, according to the release.
The National Indian Gaming Commission is an independent regulatory agency established within the U.S. Department of the Interior pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
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