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Few tribes are more powerful than Florida's Seminoles, who pioneered high-stakes bingo and won Supreme Court approval for Indian gaming everywhere. James E. Billie, the Seminoles' alligator-wrestling, folk-singing chief from 1979 to 2001, is the person most responsible for creating the tribe's gambling wealth and also personifies its flamboyant excesses. In a power struggle last year, the tribal council suspended Billie pending resolution of a sexual-harassment lawsuit (it was recently dropped) and an audit of questionable tribal financial dealings, which is still going on. At the time, he was the highest-paid elected official in Florida, with an annual salary of $330,000. He was responsible as tribal head for the purchase of a corporate jet and a minifleet of helicopters.
But Billie also shared his wealth with tribe members, who last year received individual dividend checks of $36,000 from casino profits. And he took care of other Seminole leaders. Under his reign, each councilman had a discretionary fund of at least $5 million; Billie's was $15 million. More was available if needed, and it often was. One councilman ran through $57 million in less than four years.
Ordinarily states have no jurisdiction over sovereign Indian reservations. But if an Indian casino wants to offer Las Vegas--style games--like roulette, baccarat and blackjack--or slot machines in a state where such gambling is illegal, it must make a regulatory compact with the state. The Seminoles have 3,160 machines that look and perform like slots. Florida, which doesn't allow such high-stakes professional gambling, also known as Class III gaming, says the machines are illegal without a compact and wants the casinos closed down. The Seminoles claim the machines are not slots but "electronic terminals," so the tribe needs no compact. The Clinton Administration, in one of the decisions made as it was turning out the lights on Jan. 19, 2001, issued an order approving the Seminole operation. The incoming Bush Administration promptly rescinded the order pending further study.
But the Seminoles aren't waiting for the Federal Government's go-ahead. They have broken ground for a casino-hotel-entertainment complex with a new partner, Hard Rock Cafe International. The casino-resort, which will also have convention facilities, a beach club and a spa, will add to the Seminoles' lucrative gaming business. Last year the tribe's two casinos, in Hollywood and Tampa, made a combined profit of $216 million on revenue of $254 million--a return of 85%. By comparison, General Electric, often described by the media as America's best-managed company, reported net income of $13.7 billion for 2001, an 11% return on revenue.
The Santee Sioux casino is a more modest affair. Set on a 200-sq.-mi. reservation along the Missouri River in northeast Nebraska, the gambling hall was set up in a converted cafe and has 60 slot machines. But soon after the casino opened in 1996, federal authorities sought to close it. The issue: the tribe, like the Seminoles, has no compact with the state, though it wasn't for lack of trying.