* For more info, definitions, and breakouts, download the full report at BenefitingAZ.com
This table above presents the results of an impact model for the Tribal Gaming employment reported in Table 2 (adjusted for Tribal survey responses) plus employment reported by 13 Arizona Tribes for non-gaming enterprises and their non-enterprise government activity. Because Indian casinos are government-owned enterprises by law (IGRA) whose proceeds are used for Tribal economic development and Tribal government programs, it is appropriate to study the economic impact of Tribes not just gaming.
Overall, gaming revenues fund capital investments in non-gaming Tribal enterprise. Gaming revenues fund government expenditures on road building, schoolteachers, and police protection.
This table also reports the impacts in jobs and in value added. The sum of all value added in an economy is its gross product, so the $2.5 billion in total impact can be interpreted as the estimated proportion of Arizona gross state product that results from all of Tribal Gaming and the non-gaming activities of about half the Tribes in the state (the survey respondents). Because of survey limitations, this number substantially understates the impact of all Tribal activity in the state. It captures all the gaming activity, but not all the Tribal activity gaming supports. Of the total impact, $1.6 billion accrues to employees and $675 million to property owners (in the form of interest, rents, royalties, dividends, and profits). And the state and federal governments collect $271 million in taxes other than income taxes. These taxes are over and above the $97.8 million in direct contributions made by the tribes in 2014 to Arizona state, cities, towns, and counties.
To put these numbers in context, Arizona’s gross domestic product in 2014 was about $288 billion, making Tribal economic activity a sizable, but by no means a dominating portion of the economy.
2014 employment
