Arizona Casinos
Against a backdrop of legal challenges by both sides that continued for more than a decade, Governor Symington signed Arizona’s first set of Tribal-State Gaming Compacts with 16 Tribes from 1992 to 1994. This, in effect, enabled these 16 indian tribes to have legalized casino gambling operations. The governor’s successor, Jane Hull, signed a Compact with a 17th Tribe in 1998. The Arizona Tribal-State Gaming Compacts gave Tribes exclusive rights to operate slot machines and casino style gaming within Arizona Casinos, it limited the number of slots and the number of casinos each tribe could operate, it established a comprehensive rule to governing gaming, and it set minimum internal control standards for casino operations.
Arizona Casino Controls
At the time of this writing, there are 15 Tribes operating a total of 22 Class III casinos inside the State of Arizona. Another 6 Tribes do not have casinos but they do have slot machine rights that they may lease out to other tribes. However, only one of Arizona’s 22 Tribes does not have a gaming compact (the Hopi Indians).
The controls put in place by the Arizona Tribal-State Compact are very minimal and state the following:
- Games must pay out a minimum of the following:
- 80% for games requiring no skill - slot machines
- 83% for games of skill such as video poker
- 75% during the lifetime of the keno video game