By Alabama Public Radio
Atmore, AL – Would they keep playing if the game took a little longer and required more players? Or would they head to gaming centers elsewhere, off tribal land? These questions have poured into the National Indian Gaming Commission in response to its proposal to change such electronic games. It's a move that Indian tribal leaders in at least ten states- fear could cause hundreds of millions of losses in annual revenues and hundreds of jobs. With advances in technology, the commission says the line between Class Two games like bingo and Class Three games like slot machines has blurred. Poarch Creek Chairman Buford Rolin of Atmore has asked the commission to withdraw the proposed rule changes. Rolin estimates the Poarch Creeks, Alabama's only federally recognized tribe, would have lost more than 65 million dollars last year in net income out of its more than 108 million in revenue if the rule change had been in place. Because of the regulatory uncertainty, he also says the tribe may be forced to shelve its 500 million dollar expansion plans for two of its existing gaming centers in Alabama. The tribe has 21-hundred machines at locations in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery County.