Ivo has a degree in architecture from TU Wien and is currently a student of Game Studies at University of Krems. He works as a Serious Game Designer for an international Railway Logistics Company and has successfully crowdfunded and published the board game www.world-control.net
Gambling for Freedom
FROG 2022 – Talk
Since the arrival of European settlers to the new world, First nation Americans have been subject to brutal allocation, separation and discrimination. As Indian reservations, recognized tribes have been granted partial sovereignty, not in the sense that they can raise their own army, but being able to enforce their own jurisdiction, that may differ from the state’s laws they are geographically located in. Through the means of liberal gaming and gambling laws, many tribes have found ways towards economic self-sufficiency in order to invest in their communities. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988 marked the most significant legal breakthrough for fiscal independence of many tribes within the United States.
Generating more revenue than the iconic American gambling-sanctuaries of Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined, gaming in reservations attracts vast amounts of domestic tourists, since the taboo of gambling persists in most parts of the United States and it’s puritan roots. Many native American tribes however have a big cultural heritage in games and also concerning luck, thus forming a core legal argument for it’s sovereign self-determination. In contrast, many first nations of Canada are denied their own laws concerning gaming and gambling, when no proof of a tribe’s cultural heritage directly linked to gaming can be provided.
This struggle for empowerment through the means of gaming is historically truly unique, worth revisiting and going into detail.
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