DARTMOUTH – Rhode Island residents say, 2 to 1, that Congress should grant the Narragansett Indian Tribe the right to conduct gaming on its reservation in Charlestown, according to a survey released today by the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis (CFPA).
Ten years ago, an amendment to a federal spending bill excluded the tribe from the provisions of the U.S. Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which expressly allows Native American tribes to conduct gaming on tribal land; of the nation’s 567 federally recognized tribes, that right was withheld from only the Narragansetts.
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Fifty-six percent of Ocean State residents say the state’s congressional delegations should take action to reverse the “Chafee amendment,” 28 percent oppose such congressional action and 16 percent are undecided.
By the same margin – 56 percent in favor, 28 percent opposed and 16 percent undecided – Rhode Islanders say the tribe’s Charlestown reservation should be allowed to offer video lottery gambling, as at Lincoln Park and Newport Grand.
“Rhode Islanders believe the tribe should possess the same right to offer gambling that Lincoln Park and Newport Grand possess, that the tribe should be able to offer gambling on its Charlestown reservation, and that the congressional delegation should sponsor legislation to make it a reality,” said Clyde W. Barrow, the CFPA’s director.
The public opinion survey, funded by the university’s New England Gaming Project, interviewed 449 Rhode Islanders from February 14 to 19; its margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percent.
Additional information, including survey results by county, is available at www.umassd.edu/cfpa, under “What’s New!”
