Decided in 1981, the United States Supreme Court also declined to hear Florida’s appeal to the ruling. It upheld the Seminole’s claim that their tribal sovereignty made them immune from legal interference on reservation land, skirting Florida’s restrictions on high-stakes bingo games. Butterworth, a legal ruling that would set the precedent for Indian gaming throughout the United States. Opened in 1979, the Seminole Bingo Hall was the catalyst for the Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Subsequently, the Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first federally recognized tribe to operate a bingo hall on a reservation. The Seminole Bingo Hall, located in Hollywood and now the Seminole Classic Casino, was the country’s first large-scale bingo hall. Last month, we talked about the birth of bingo for the Seminole Tribe of Florida in the 1970s. The Seminole Tribe of Florida established senior centers, community centers, education programs, Seminole Cultural Education programs, and more services to support their members with funding from bingo revenue.Ģ021.24.260, ATTK Museum The Seminole Tribe of Florida Wins Big in the Courts Bingo halls transformed the lives of the Florida Seminoles. In the 1980s, bingo hall revenue allowed many community programs, reinvestment projects, and services to flourish in the reservation communities. Lopinot was an intern for the National Geographic on assignment at the Big Cypress and Brighton Seminole Indian Reservations at the time.

Lopinot took this image in September 1987. They have markers and paper chips, and are most likely playing a game of bingo. This week, learn how Seminole bingo exploded in the 1980s, and how it set the stage for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s continued success.īelow, a group of children sit under a chickee, playing with a laminated card with pictures of animals on it. Building on the legal successes seen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Seminole bingo begins to cement the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s fiscal stability throughout this decade. Welcome back to our series on Decades of Seminole Tourism! We are focusing on the 1980s, where Seminole bingo began to boom big in the Sunshine State.

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