Wherever there's an Indian reservation in Movieland, there
has to be a casino.
This is partly
Truth in Television - In the United States, Native American tribal reservations are outside state jurisdiction, and thus exempt from any state gambling bans or regulation. Since reservations are typically among the poorest and least developed counties in the nation, the upside is that giving them a monopoly on gaming is a way to attract tourists and jump-start reservation economies. The downside is that impoverished residents can be attracted to addictive gambling, and there is no guarantee that the casinos will enrich anyone but the owners.
Examples:
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Live Action TV
- The 1992 revival series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet had a plot involving our heroes demolishing a historic bridge in England, and rebuilding it across a canyon in Arizona to provide access to a Native American casino.
- In the CSI: Miami episode "Bloodline", a gaming official accused of trying to dip into Indian casino profits is found scalped to death.
- Tony Soprano makes a deal with the owner of such an establishment (and even visits his casino) in an attempt to use backdoor politics to stop a Native American protest of a Christopher Columbus parade.
- Life: In episode 2x10, the deputy is killed in one of those reservation casinos.
- Malcolm in the Middle:
- Francis makes a casino out of half of his and his wife's house when he finds out that the one half is on reservation territory.
- In another episode, the family goes to an Indian casino, and Hal and Malcolm are caught counting cards.
- In the "Deer Woman" episode of Masters of Horror, the obligatory Magical Native American works at a casino.
- On Big Love Bill Henrickson decides to branch out from the hardware business, and partners with a Native American tribe to build a "family" casino.
Animated Series
- The Simpsons: Marge develops a gambling problem after Mr. Burns opens a casino in Springfield. In another episode, Homer makes an Indian chief promise him that they will build a casino in exchange for Homer breaking the dam that has flooded the natives' valley. The chief says Homer will also be offered free breakfasts and four decks at blackjack.
- South Park: Evil Native American casino owners are planning to pave over South Park in order to build a freeway directly to their casino.
- The Drawn Together episode "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine" combines this trope with Indian Burial Ground.
- Featured in an episode of Family Guy and again in American Dad.
- John Redcorn tries to open one up in Texas in King of the Hill. It turns out there's a law against it there, and when asked why he didn't notice there being no other tribal casinos at all in the area, John simply thought he was the first to think of it.
