In fall of 2005, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation endowed the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming (SITG) at San Diego State University (SDSU). The SITG has pursued three mandates since then: 1) developing and offering the nation’s first four-year degree program in tribal casino operations management; 2) producing and supporting academic research on tribal gaming; and, 3) informing the public policy debate around tribal government gaming and its impacts on communities.
In the last decade, dozens of students have graduated from SDSU with a B.S. in hospitality and tourism management with an emphasis in tribal casino operations. Our students and alumni are working in a range of positions in tribal and commercial gaming properties. Graduates of our program can be found in positions around the country, working for tribal governments directly and extending their understanding to non-tribal communities, including Las Vegas.
With the support of our gaming industry partners, the institute is demonstrating a shared commitment to the long-term goal of developing a professional class of gaming experts who will enhance the tribal government gaming industry across the U.S.
After a decade of development and growth on our campus in San Diego, however, the institute is extending its reach off campus and into Indian Country, both in person and online. At the invitation of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association (AIGA), the institute developed and offered our first Tribal Gaming Executive Training Program (ETP) at the Arizona Indian Gaming Association (AIGA) Expo 2014 in Scottsdale, Arizona. The institute invited top gaming faculty to present two unique tracks during the AIGA Expo.
Track 1, Casino Operations and Integrated Resort Management, covered operations issues. Track 2, Tribal Human Resources: Developing a Local Workforce through Hiring and Training, addressed human resources in Indian Country.
The ETP was heavily attended and universally embraced, and the institute, at the invitation of AIGA, has agreed to create and deliver another ETP program for Expo 2015. Over time, we hope to be able to serve gaming professionals in other regions of the United States as well.
As a complement to our direct industry outreach through the ETP, last fall the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming began offering fully online classes in tribal gaming as part of a new Certificate in Tribal Casino Operations Management. The certificate program was developed in direct response to tribal gaming industry requests for access to higher education in casino operations, marketing and regulation.
The certificate program consists of 12 units across five courses. The five courses required for the Tribal Gaming Certificate include Tribal Casino Operations, Tribal Casino Marketing and Public Relations, Tribal Gaming Legal and Regulatory Issues, History and Culture of Tribal Gaming and Cross-Cultural Interpretations of Gambling Addiction. All five courses are now being offered fully online by SDSU and can be completed in nine months.
In addition to offering formal academic courses and the ETP, the Sycuan Institute has also invested significant time and effort in building an academic research arm that solicits research proposals and offers grants to researchers who can contribute to the creation of an intellectual community investigating tribal government gaming. During its first decade, the Sycuan Institute funded several major research projects treating such diverse issues as responsible gaming, employee diversity and orientation strategy, cultural revitalization through language recovery and traditional gambling among the California tribes, among others.
Several institute-funded research projects have been published in peer-reviewed journals, and at least two more are due to be published in 2015. For example, in 2013, the institute published a comprehensive study on the national impacts of tribal government gaming in the UNLV Gambling Research and Review Journal.
The study, titled “Economic Evidence on the Effects of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on Indians and Non-Indians,” covers the substantial growth and myriad positive impacts of the first 20 years of tribal gaming under IGRA, and reveals the ways the federal regulatory framework laid out in the law resolved numerous legal dilemmas that had plagued tribal gaming expansion.
In December 2014, the institute published a study addressing the impacts of tribal government gaming in California over the past 20 years. This study, titled “Social and Economic Changes on American Indian Reservations in California: an Examination of 20 Years of Tribal Government Gaming,” was also published in the UNLV Gambling Research and Review Journal and finds that while there has been phenomenal growth and recovery on many American Indian reservations in California, there are still large discrepancies in comparison to the rest of the U.S. Both studies are available at http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/grrj.
As we begin our next decade, the Sycuan Institute is poised to strengthen our partnership with the tribal government gaming industry by supporting the development of best practices for both tribal governance and tribal casino operations. Our research agenda has extended into tribal casino operations with the funding of analysis of free play in tribal casinos, and we will continue to respond to the needs of Indian Country, both in person and online.
The institute remains committed to the vision of the Sycuan Band and SDSU, which is to create an improved business and social environment while supporting better gaming policy.
