Kalle Benallie
ICT
The new chairman of the Indian Gaming Association, David Bean said he was able to “hit the ground running” after longtime Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. died in September 2024.
Bean said he learned a great deal from Stevens. He recalled how Stevens would talk frequently about his family and his children at events and outside of events. It would remind Bean about the opportunities Indian gaming could do for others and tribes.
“My takeaway from watching chairman is to make sure and tell these personalized stories, be that reminder of why we do the work we do. We also have to remain vigilant. He was constantly talking about threats, talking about challenges past and present. He talked about how we overcame past challenges,” Bean said.
Bean’s priorities after taking Steven’s position is to continue Steven’s legacy of hard work, protecting Indian gaming, protecting tribal sovereignty and promoting economic diversification.
“In the spirit of honoring his commitment and honoring his legacy I’m walking in his footsteps,” Bean said. “He worked really hard to bring a lot of people together from different tribes, from different organizations outside entities outside of the gaming industry and within the gaming industry. And that includes the American Gaming Association.”
Bean, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, has been with the association since 2009. He served as the first regional representative for the northwest for IGA. He was a council member for the Puyallup tribe since 2006, was vice-chair and eventually became chairman for three years until 2021.
Bean was the youngest member by decades at the age of 37 when he was elected to the Puyallup Tribal Council. He said former chairman Herman Dillon, lobbyist Mary Pavel and tribal leaders from the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians showed him how to communicate with members of Congress.
“It’s just a matter of repetition. Understanding the issue, understanding the priority, and then knowing your congressional web, knowing what’s important to them. I kind of describe it as learning to speak someone’s language. Learn to speak their language and then speak their language and that’ll help the communication process,” he said.
Bean plans to honor Chairman Stevens and his commitments during IGA’s Annual Tradeshow and Convention from March 30 to April 3 in San Diego. They will be honoring veterans and people like Danny Tucker and Jerry Danforth who died last year and were leaders in the Indian Gaming Association.
Last year they honored matriarchs like Gay Kingman, a founding member of the Indian Gaming Association, Margot Gay and Francis Alvarez.
Bean said illegal unregulated sports betting through prediction markets is the biggest threat to Indian gaming. On Jan. 29, the National Conference of State Legislatures urged Congress to address the issue.
Prediction markets allow an individual to buy and sell “shares” on the specific outcome of an event; including sports, elections and even the weather. Whereas sportsbooks set fixed odds, prediction markets use peer-to-peer, market driven pricing similar to the stock market.
In the 2024 fiscal year, Indian Gaming reached about $44 billion in Gross Gaming Revenues.
“My priority is to address the threats against Indian gaming, in the form of prediction, sports betting through prediction markets, as well as addressing the threat identified by the National Indian Gaming Commission,” Bean said.
Other threats he’s concerned about is cybersecurity. He said they’ve recently experienced attempted and firewall attacks.
“There will be panels and specific conversations on cybersecurity to make sure that we protect our member tribes, protect the industry,” Bean said about the tradeshow and convention.
Another issue is reports of foreign tourism declining in the U.S. The World Travel and Tourism Council reported foreign visitors dropped by six percent in the United States.
Bean said he has heard about tourism declining near the northern tribes in Washington, Minnesota, Michigan and New York. Their casino operations, retail stations, gift shops, shopping centers have seen a decline in visitors.
He said that Canadian tribes were also worried.
“I observed that, man, we have so much more in common than differences. One thing that we also had in common was our concern about a tax provision, the Big Beautiful bill that lowered the amount of losses that a gambler could deduct,” Bean said
The bill reduced the deduction of gambling losses from 100 percent to 90 percent.
“When you have high dollar value customers not able to deduct their gambling losses, that’s a deterrent,” Bean said.
With the new bill, if an individual loses $100,000 in gambling, they can only deduct $90,000 whereas in the past they were able to deduct the entire loss.
Elections for treasurer and vice chair will happen at the IGA’s Annual Tradeshow and Convention. Bean said he hopes the vice chair who is selected will have a strong commitment to protecting Indian gaming, tribal sovereignty, promoting economic diversification and is engaged to listen to tribal leaders.
Bean said he plans to put his name on the ballot for chairman in April 2027. His goals will be to expand IGA membership and their associate membership program.
“That will expand revenues and keep the dues low for our tribal membership because every resource that a tribe has I always say it’s limited and it’s precious. If we can keep the dues low, that’s more money that they can spend on programs that take care of each member tribe’s respective community,” he said.
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