The Seminole Tribe is suddenly wealthy, but little oversight me...

[Gringo lover]

I agree

CherokeeIrish wrote:

Yep, doesn't take a rocket Scientist to see that unregulated gambling is an open pocket book to wealth. Being a regular patron of Las Vegas, I went to their cassino to blow a little money and have fun. Well, I blew it alright, in a very short time, but something was missing.....where were all the winners yelling with happiness? I looked around and tried to see what was so drastically different. I soon realized, no one was having fun, there were no winners. Oh sure every once in hour or so, there would be a comotion where a winner won a grand, but 99% of the other players just sat around putting there money in and occassionally getting a few bucks back.
I will fly to Vegas where I can play Black Jack and Slots for days at a time, drink all the drinks I want, stumble back to my room only to wake up and think, "what a great time I had, now give me that breathtaking BUFFET for $5.95.
It was obvious that a true gambler would not fall for such a fixed cassino. It is true the house always has the edge, that is the business but, if the house doesn't even seem to give you a chance of winning. What fun is it?
I went back a total of four times to make sure I wasn't on at off time, same story, a few happy faces to every 95 sad ones. Vegas is more 85 Happy and 15 sad, that is the difference. Slot machines are not random and have man made programs that can do what ever the cassino says.
No one is there for the consumer, so consumer BEWARE!
I will save for Vegas and meanwhile contribute to Florida's education Lottory and it works out fine for me.....

[Brian]

It's nice the tribe has all this money to spend, yet not enough to give year end bonuses to their hard working salaried employees.

[Publius]

After reading this article, the phrase "the good, the bad and the ugly" runs through my mind.

The good: the tribe can be financially independent.

The bad: excess wealth in the hands of people unprepared for it, or any experience managing great fortunues, leads to squandering the resource.

The ugly: When the sh** hits the fan. The corruption rampant in the tribe (what you could comprehend from this lousy article)plus addiction issues, broken families.

As for this new "deal" cut by the State of Florida (too late) the big sell of how it will "benefit" education is also b.s. Anyone remember the lottery? So, our schools should be fully funded just from the hundreds of millions in lottery money. Somehow, this never happens, and never will.

And finally...I'm COMPLETELY over this whole "we stole their (indians) land" bull****. Enough already. Simply because these people were here when european settlers arrived doesn't mean they had greater entitlement or "ownership" rights. It's OUR planet. I don't advocate taking someone out of their house and forcibly moving them, that's wrong. But somehow, this country's guilt over landing on Plymouth Rock and settling here, moving west and south where "OH NO" the "indians" already lived - means we "took" their lands is nonsense. And the tribes have played this one for all its worth. Does a casino make you feel better?

[Wise Guy]

Change a few names and places and this would sound like many governments.

Those in charge treat themselves like kings and the people get what's leftover. There are no rules that can't be manipulated and no repercussions for anything.

This sounds a lot like Hollywood's CRA's where millions go to cronies "helping" the cause of "alleged" blight. No oversight, no accountability and no end in sight.

It's called abuse of power. The Seminoles have discovered what many in American government have been scamming for decades. Try getting anyone to fix that.

[Delray Chica]

It's like affirmative action, my friend...the US government stole their lands in earlier days of this country's development and almost completely erradicated their people. They deserve to be compensated for that for the next thousand years. African Americans too. The only thing I feel a little odd about the whole thing is that...it wasn't me or my ancestors, it was US government before my ancestors even arrived here, but we are one nation so we must all collectively pay that price. If you don't like it, move to Canada or get involved in government.

However, I think that for the sake of all the tribe members, they need to have more of a democratic process of spending and not a monarchy based on the whims of the tribal council.

I also agree with the comment that they could pay their employees better at the resorts and casinos!
Improve the overall economy of the area. I can't imagine how someone could blow 32 million in a year in public monies and not be held accountable for it!

Bob wrote:

It's nice to see the legalized and illegitimate handouts the U.S. Government has given to the tribes. The non-competitive gambling abilities they have had for decades now... it's no surprise.
Here, you can have casino's, but no one else can... geee golly... now they are buying billion dollar american landmark corporations, and will only continue to grow and outcompete the hard working american because of insanely unfair advantages...
I honestly call upon American's to stop giving the tribes your money, don't visit their hard rock hotel, ignore the indian casino's, and boycott everything they do. We are hurting ourselves and making these criminals rich.

[cash]

You think this large group of people is going to be 100% honest when so much money is filtering through? They are human and you are going to always have crooks in every community. Everyone seems shocked and surprised? You try to tell me that all of Florida...or even the US's politicians are 100% honest and corruption free. RIIIGHT!

I do think their casino monopoly should be over. Open up full gambling in south florida. Oh and that huge tax cut we were supposed to see? Pennys. WE NEED FULL CASINOS to offset our taxes!

[WTF]

Why is this not surprising?

[Florida]

When will the United States of America and the rest of the American population, that you can not govern any nation other than yourself. The Indian nations that are scattered around the U.S. should stand up to the laws that are governed or issued by the U.S. of A. If anyone should address the governing of the Indians, it should be themselves. How about going after the many religious factions that keep getting large money grants and land deals from our own governemnt, that money shouldn't be going to them. Think about it. We should inspect our own government before going after other governments, even if the Inidians live on land that the U.S. of A. thinks it belongs to them and not the Inidans.

[Interested Observer]

...So is the idea that..."we have to attone for beating you in battle by giving you a monopoly in something where you're a guaranteed winner"?

...So does this reestablish their "lost face" or something?

...So we have "corrected history"?

Is everybody mad?

[southeast of disorder]

Their smarter than us good for them. thats what you can do when your not TAXED TO DEATH!!!!!!!!

[Grin Reaper]

So what you are saying is that the red man is just as corrupt as the white man or the black man and their governments are just as wasteful, greedy, and power hungry.

[The laughing liberal]

Excess money & power corrupt most. Sad to see to detailed so clearly to the Seminole Indians.

[Wayne]

I'm not at all sure what all the griping is about. They run their nation the same we run ours. You guys don't think that George Bush, and Bill Clinton befor him, and Bush Sr., and Reagan, and Carter all didn't do the same things? Come on folks, get real. Seriously, our Senators, both at the Federal and State level, do EXACTLY the same thing. They do it in a way that is harder to trace, but it's the same thing.

[No Fun Anymore]

Well we let the machine start running and don't know how to turn it off.
Besides someone is getting stink'in rich from this and it is not you or I. Otherwise we would be saying nothing also!
Time to up the payoff for the "so-called acedemic fund" you know another penny, it's still considered money no matter how large the payoff.
This stinks along with the oil taxes Alaska is getting screwed out of because of thier stupidity in the political machine.
Campaign money hurts when your not the one recieving it
boohoo give me more, I don't like working over a paid lunch or breakfast,(even worse) no sleep after drinking all night.

[Wannabe]

It's good to be a Seminole. You get $120,000, plus whatever handout you can get from the tribe. And thanks to the governor, by next year they will probably get twice as much. With their monopoly on blackjack, the track casinos will soon be put out of business. The Seminoles will have a statewide control of casino gambling.

[Rita]

Isn't it about time we got past the guilt complexes of the nineteenth century and ended "Reservations" the "Bureau of Indian Affairs" etc. and just integrated the descendents of these people fully into the American population with no more or no less "rights" than we give to African Americans, Polish Americans, German Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Latino Ameicans, etc. etc. etc. None of them have tax free anything and it is highly un Constitutional in my view to have any priveleged class based upon heritage amongst us in the 21st century. Are we all just 2nd class now to have to pay taxes on everything and the Indians don't ?

[margaritanlime]

Has anyone forgotten that the Indians were here first? That the white, Europeans came in and took over their lands, put them on a reservation (Lindsay, Mark......)that is, those who weren't killed before that happened. How can anyone,in good conscience, begrudge them this? They do this on their tribal lands, leave them be.

I'm a white woman of European descent by the way.

[The IRS]

No different from the irs taking your money.You get to see the pres.spend it in iraq.Not here!It's no fun when the rabbit has the gun!

[JCC]

I would be doing much better too if I wasn't paying TAXES< TAXES< TAXES

[No Fun Anymore]

Grin Reaper wrote:

So what you are saying is that the red man is just as corrupt as the white man or the black man and their governments are just as wasteful, greedy, and power hungry.

NO Worse!! They hide behind section 8 dolling out political payoffs. Too bad the FBI and FDLE is up there throwing most of them in jail boo hooo where is my old friend stevens and red dog? In the can... have to make an example out of them and where are they now