The latest payment was extraordinarily high because it included a $60 million payment from the Ho-Chunk tribe that ended a four-year dispute with the state over the terms of its compact. Net win is the amount the casino wins from gamblers after paying off winners but before the casino pays salaries and other costs of running a facility.

The payments are based on casino gaming revenue, with tribes required to pay up to 6.5% of their net win to the state.

'People are watching their discretionary spending.'ĭespite the drop in business, the tribes this year paid the state $112.7 million, up from $75.5 million, according to figures released in response to an Open Records Law request. 'The spending per customer just isn't where it used to be,' said Ryan Amundson, spokesman for Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley. The economy, which was recessionary throughout 2008, kept gamblers holding on to their chips.

'It's a pretty tough business right now,' said Lisa Waukau, chairwoman of the Menominee Nation, a 9,000-member tribe located near Keshena. The 25 casinos in Wisconsin won about $1.24 billion from gamblers last year, down from $1.26 billion in 2007, according to the Indian Gaming Industry Report compiled annually by Alan Meister, principal economist at Nathan Associates Inc., a Washington, D.C., consulting firm. The casino business, an industry once believed to be recession-proof, is taking a hit in Wisconsin: The state's 11 tribes saw their gaming revenue fall by nearly 2% last year, according to a new study.

Menominee casino bingo