Legislating and Regulating Casino Gaming: a View from State Regulators

Introduction The authority to regulate legalized gambling activity has, throughout our nation’s history, been vested in the states of the union. With only limited exceptions, the U.S. Congress has accepted this constitutionally supported federalism. Importantly, the Congress has attempted to foster a public policy climate in which each state sets an independent framework for the form or extent of gambling it may elect to authorize, and for the scope and intensity of the regulation of legalized gambling. The special case of tribal gaming, of course, requires federal policy.