State of the Tribal Nations Address, 2026

CNIGA Chairman James Siva:

Good morning and welcome to the 29^th annual Western Indian Gaming Conference. It is always great to be here at Pechanga. I want to first express our gratitude to Chairman Macarro and the Pechanga Tribal Council for hosting us again, we truly appreciate your hospitality. I also want to congratulate Chairman Macarro on his reelection as president of the National Congress of American Indians, you are truly an inspiration.

I also want to acknowledge the many people in this room and beyond that work to protect tribal sovereign rights and the tribal government gaming industry. This is a true team effort, and your work is deeply appreciated.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that we have had some changes here at CNIGA recently. Susan Jensen retired as executive director last fall. While we will honor her specifically tomorrow, I wanted to acknowledge the 27 years she spent with this association, the last nine in which she served as executive director. She left a significant legacy of achievement that deserves to be acknowledged. She also left a space that was seemingly impossible to fill. Yet, I assure you that even with such a loss your association is poised to be as dynamic and vibrant as ever. Our, new executive director Ambar Mohammed, has moved into that role and is working incredibly hard to ensure that your organization continues to thrive and grow. Thank you, to both Susan and Ambar.

Now, our record of achievement in recent years within this organization has been truly incredible. It is important to take some time to reflect on what has been achieved.

These accomplishments include successfully soliciting the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to authorize a state audit of the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund, or SDF, which revealed years of mismanagement by the state, as well as two successful bills to address that abuse. There were successful efforts that gave tribes standing in state court to sue commercial cardrooms offering illegal games, more on that later, as well as an extension of the moratorium on licenses and tables at cardrooms for 20 years.

Last year, CNIGA, along with our partners at TASIN, spearheaded legislation that reformed the Tribal Nations Grant Fund, resulting in direct disbursements to Indian Gaming Revenue Sharing Trust Fund-eligible tribes, the first increase in payments to those tribes since the RSTF was established in 1999.

CNIGA also co-sponsored successful legislation with the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation to ban sweepstakes-style platforms that mimic casino games. This new law not only holds operators liable, but the other entities that support these illegal games, such as payment processors.

Also, after more than a decade of engaging multiple state attorneys general on illegal practices at commercial cardrooms in the state, Attorney General Rob Bonta issued two sets of regulations governing commercial cardrooms that were approved by the state earlier this month. One set on Rotation of the Player-Dealer Position, and the other concerns Blackjack-Style games. These regulations further clarify that games and practices employed by commercial card rooms are indeed against California law. We hope that the Department of Justice will now enforce these regulations.

These are significant victories; however, celebration will have to be short lived as the tribal government gaming industry is facing widespread threats. It would not be an exaggeration to characterize what we face as the largest existential crisis our industry has ever faced.

It was only just over a year ago, in late 2024 that we became aware that online trading platforms began offering event contracts. Essentially, these are a form of derivative contracts that allow speculation on the outcome of a specific event, including sports games. These contracts are offered on registered exchanges such as Kalshi, Crypto.com, and Robinhood.

These event contracts are effectively unregulated, nationwide sports betting, including on all tribal lands. In fact, platforms have taken to advertising their product as sports betting that is legal in all 50 states.

It cannot be overstated how vast an abuse this is of the scope of what futures markets can offer. Multiple federal laws seem to clearly prohibit this type of activity. Not the least of these is the Commodities Exchange Act, which explicitly prohibits gaming as a use for events contracts. ***

The rapidity of the way this issue arose is truly bewildering, and it underscores how quickly threats can arise to tribal sovereignty and our well-being. This is also a prime example of why we, as tribes, cannot afford to be complacent for even a second. A mere 15 months ago, this was not on anyone's radar, and now it threatens our entire industry.

These so-called sports events contracts are "overseen" by a body, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, that was never designed to be a gaming regulator. And though a particularly preposterous nominee to chair the CFTC was thwarted last year, the new chairman has made some troubling initial remarks in his new role; remarks that directly contradict those he gave during his confirmation hearing last fall.

Michael Selig had indicated in his Senate confirmation that he would allow the courts to conduct a neutral review of what constitutes "gaming" under the Commodity Exchange Act. However, in his recent remarks, he said he will direct the CFTC to develop rules allowing prediction markets to continue offering sports betting.

This will violate federal and state law, undermine tribal sovereignty, compromise sports integrity, and inflict harm on consumers across the nation. It is imperative that Congress act and definitively declare that using predictions markets for sports betting and online gambling is flat out illegal!!!

To be frank, these platforms have allies at the highest level of government, so our task is not easy, but we must keep pushing until justice prevails.

Now other such corporate entities as FanDuel and DraftKings, who vowed to work with tribes, have done an about face and recently begun to offer sports events contracts. This demonstrates the potential pitfalls of working with corporate entities. They do what is best for them, not tribes. As, there representatives said to a room full of tribal leaders recently when discussing their entry into prediction markets, "market conditions changed" and so they had no choice but to react. Once more, market conditions outweigh their word to tribes. Period. That is why it is imperative that any effort to legalize sports wagering in California is driven by tribes and run by tribes. Anything less is in the corporate interests and not our interests. Full stop.

This is why we are having the hard discussions about sports wagering among ourselves, because we want to do it right and we want to do it under our own watch.

We only want a product that is safe for California consumers and that maintains their hard-earned trust. That is how it is done. Offering illegal products and hoping it escapes consequence is quite simply the wrong way to go about it.

Unsurprisingly, the practice of offering sports events contracts has resulted in a host of legal actions in multiple courts at multiple levels of government. States that sought to stop the practice as a violation of their gaming laws found themselves the recipient of lawsuits filed by the platforms. Astonishingly, the CFTC under Chairman Selig, has begun intervening in these lawsuits on the side of the platforms offering these contracts and against the states.

Tribes are not taking this lying down and are fighting back against what is a stunning usurpation of tribal law over our own jurisdictions. CNIGA and several individual tribes have signed on to amicus briefs in various of these legal cases.

Three California tribes, Blue Lake Rancheria, Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, and Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians, all CNIGA members, have initiated their own lawsuit against Kalshi and Robinhood, two of the platforms offering these illegal games. In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation has taken similar action.

Though the California case hit an early hurdle, with a court astonishingly deciding that IGRA only applies to physical gaming locations, and the law does not prohibit third party online operators. The stretch of logic to this degree is why court watchers are hopeful that the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals will reverse this decision.

Speaking of poorly decided cases, a lawsuit that was authorized by the passage of Senate Bill 549 in 2024 was blocked in state court over procedural grounds, preventing tribes, once again, to have access to justice. SB 549, the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act, gave tribes a one-time standing in state court to sue commercial cardrooms for offering games that are in clear violation of the law.

It is difficult to reconcile this ruling with the clear intent of the Legislature, and once again, a court has sidestepped the actual merits of the case - effectively denying tribes a fair opportunity to seek justice……again.

This case is currently being appealed, and similarly to the CFTC case, it stands a good chance of succeeding upon appeal, but of course, neither is a guarantee.

These are indeed trying times, and the threat to our industry is indeed grave. There is no way to sugarcoat it. Yet, we must remember we built this industry from scratch because we had to. And bit by bit, battle by battle, year by year and decade by decade, we have not only survived. We have not simply thrived. We have transformed. We have evolved. We have revolutionized and we have done so through our own force of will.

Let us look at what we have built. A 2024 Economic Impact Study, or EIS, from Beacon Economics showed that tribal governmental enterprises, both gaming and non-gaming, support over 112,000 jobs statewide, 85,000 of which are from gaming. To put it into perspective, that's more jobs than the fossil fuel industry employs statewide.

The most recent data show that expenditures from tribal gaming operations in California generated approximately $17.2 billion in economic output, and $5.3 billion in earnings for California workers. Taken together, tribal government gaming and non-gaming operations generated a total of $25.1 billion in economic output.

Our gaming entities also support a growing number of jobs in California. In 2012, these operations supported around 56,000 jobs statewide, increasing to 63,000 jobs in 2014 and growing to 85,000 jobs in the most recent survey. This represents a 52% increase in jobs supported by tribal government gaming in that period, outpacing the statewide overall rate of 13.5%.

This is what we are fighting for, this is what we built.

Tribes are rooted in community and have been good neighbors. In addition to the thousands of jobs tribes provide primarily to neighboring communities, tribal gaming operations continue to be a significant source of tax revenue for California and beyond, providing $2.2 billion in tax revenue to various levels of government.

The EIS also reveals that tribes made $77 million in annual donations in 2021 alone, to charities and community organizations, part of an upward trend. Economic output from tribal charitable giving, by itself, supported 535 jobs and resulted in $54.3 million in labor income.

Just a few recent examples of tribal giving from the past few months include a $200,000 grant last month to the Suisun City Fire Department from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to modernize their alerting system, as well as a $30,000 donation to a local Yolo County organization to help foster care transitions.

The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation gave $197,000 to 26 charities in December. The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation gave $450,000 in grants to eight local and Native-led nonprofits that month.

Mooretown Rancheria donated $15,000 to help illuminate and revitalize a historic bridge in Oroville. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash gave $25,000 to a Toys for Tots campaign on the Central Coast.

Every November, several tribes give away thousands of turkeys and donate to local food banks across the state. This is something my own tribe, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians has done for decades now.

These are but a few examples of the large-scale charitable giving by tribes. Even with all the amazing work that tribes have done, and all the positive impact on local communities and individual lives our industry has enabled, tribes are taking on projects with profound impacts on California and the planet. I want to highlight a few of these amazing tribal projects that often escape notice in this Address.

The Karuk Tribe have received widespread recognition for their re-introduction of traditional fire management practices to the forests of the far north of this state. Their application of traditional tribal knowledge to applied sciences has resulted in an agreement signed last year with the state of California to practice cultural burns, the first tribe to do so.

The Yurok Tribe has been instrumental in the restoration of the California condor to the north coast, a bird that has been synonymous with being a highly endangered species.

Also, both, Yurok, Karuk, as well as the Hoopa Valley Tribe, along with other tribal partners and conservation organizations were instrumental in the removal of four large hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, in the largest such removal and river restoration in U.S. history.

In an area straddling Lake and Colusa counties, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, was among two tribes that signed a co-stewardship agreement with the federal government, over a ridge in the Berryessa-Snow Mountain National Monument that they had helped restore to its original name-Molok Luyuk.

The Pit River Tribe was crucial to the establishment of the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in the northeastern part of the state, while in the southeastern region, the Cahuilla Band of Indians and the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe were among five tribes that participated in the formation of the Chuckwalla National Monument Intertribal Commission to play a central role in the planning and management of the monument. Both monuments were established last year, and have been under threat from the current administration, but remain intact today.

I apologize if I missed any tribe's conservation efforts, as I'm sure there are more.

It is work like this that should give us hope. Against all odds a river runs free, and condors fly in their native range. They have endured and we will too. These projects were done through cooperation and perseverance.

If we are going to endure, if our industry is going to survive and thrive, even in this time of a growing threat, we need to face it together. That is the only way we get through it.

We would not be gathered here, celebrating our industry were it not for the fact that we all stood together to assert our sovereign rights. There are still many of you that were there in the late part of the last century and the first years of this one to take a stand together and say that we were doing this. We resolved to exercise our sovereign rights to engage in gaming.

We will never have one-hundred percent agreement, and that is OK. Like people everywhere, we are diverse and approach all things from a wide array of perspectives.

The thing that makes us unique is that we faced an existential threat from the outside world, a threat made worse in that the invaders were able to use these differences to their advantage. However, when we stood in unison and stood our ground, we had our greatest successes. The result of that success is right here in this room.

Now that threat is upon us again. We need as many of us to stand on principle and defend what we, ourselves, have created. Corporate interests are working to claim what we have built. They are trying to do an end around tribes by flouting the laws of this country. This is patently unfair and wrong as tribes have built an industry that has adhered to the rules. We are regulated at multiple levels of government, and we demand that gaming in California, and the United States remains tightly regulated and safe for consumers.

How we answer the questions that we now face will determine if the industry that we made, and the sovereignty we must protect will continue to endure and flourish. No one individual person or tribe can do this on their own, we MUST UNITE.

Not only must we unite, we also need to TRUST each other. Without the strong bonds that trust engenders, it all falls apart and only our enemies reap the benefits. We need to do the hard work to build that trust and have those difficult conversations.

It has been observed that trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. However, it is also the most vital component in any successful endeavor, which is why it is so worth pursuing. This is why we need more direct conversations between leaders, as any successful trust building process begins and ends with communication.

There is just so much at stake, and I see so much of our potential being fulfilled. We are a vital part of the fourth largest economy in the world. We give freely to our neighbors and are doing amazing work in using our knowledge to heal the land. This is who we are and who we have always been. We know that this is precious and can be taken away from us. But we refuse. We refuse to not protect what we have built. We refuse to lessen our sovereignty. We refuse to let outside forces control our future. That is our charge and I have great faith in our ability to make it through any challenge we face stronger than ever.

Thank you.