I was just starting my career as a technology director when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was enacted in October of 1988. This was a time where IBM servers still dominated the gaming industry server rooms, green or amber screened text-based DOS workstations were the leading technology on employee desktops and cell phones and even texting was still 10 years away from any real communication dependability or public consumption. Across the U.S., hundreds of tribes that had zero (or just a few for the largest tribes) full-time IT team members were already overwhelmed with supporting their existing clunky management and accounting systems for government, health, natural resources and membership services. Suddenly, they were tasked with building connectivity, hardware and software for casinos and hotels as quickly as possible.
I certainly could write enough to fill the space of this entire magazine detailing the tremendous number of technology changes that have occurred since 1988, but the focus of this article will be on a few of the industry contributions of tribal gaming and then a look into where the future of technology for tribes in gaming and hospitality is heading.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY MICHAEL DAY IN THE 2022 WINTER EDITION OF GAMING & LEISURE MAGAZINE.