ONEIDA (WTAQ-WLUK) — You don’t need us to tell you even if you go home from the casino with less money in your pocket than when you came, there’s still a winner.
And in 2023, the Indian gaming industry won big. $41.9B big.
Thursday, officials with the National Indian Gaming Commission were in Oneida to talk about the health of the multi-billion dollar industry.
“The gaming revenue for 2023 has once again hit a historic, record-breaking amount. highest in Indian gaming history,” said Sharen Avery, the NIGC’s acting chair.
That number – $41.9B – is one billion dollars higher than 2022’s revenue.
It’s also 19% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Officials say local success is mirroring the national trends, too.
“At Oneida Nation, those numbers have increased pretty similar to what the national graphs have been showing,” says Tehassi Hill, Oneida Nation’s chairman.
While there’s no breakdown to see how each tribal nation specifically performed, Wisconsin’s region – in the light blue – generated a 2.8% increase from 2022.
It’s the third highest of all 8 regions.
While the NIGC wouldn’t take media questions about what they believe is driving the continued increase, Chairman Hill offered this.
“I think a lot of it has been the operations themselves being more lean and efficient obviously with the employment levels and what they are, employers looking for employees, they’ve been having to do more with less employees so that’s one of the key factors to increasing in our gaming revenue.”
Despite the continued struggle to fill gaming positions left open by the pandemic, as a whole, Oneida is one of the largest employers in Brown County. Hill also says before the pandemic, the nation had nearly a $750M impact on Brown and Outagamie counties.
Hill adds that the continued success of the gaming industry isn’t just important for those living on the reservation.
“Not only affects the quality of life for tribal members living on the reservation but the wider community, we hire about 50% of our employment levels is nontribal so that def impacts the quality of life for the greater community to have good paying jobs and being able to support their families,”
The full NIGC 2023 report can be viewed below.
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