For Immediate Release
Contact: Shawn Pensoneau
(202) 632-7003
NIGC Extends Comment Period for Miscellaneous Regulations
PALM SPRINGS, CA January 15, 2009 — National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) Chairman Philip N. Hogen announced today that the agency is extending the time period for comments on a proposed rule intended to streamline procedures and update NIGC’s regulations. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2008. The original comment period closed on February 5, 2009, and will now close on March 9, 2009.
The rule would, for example, reduce from four to two the number of times per year tribes must submit fee payments, allow for the submission of consolidated audit statements for gaming operations that have multiple facilities, and allow for shorter audit statements when operations gross less than $1 million.
The proposed rule would also update regulations to reflect existing practices, such as allowing the licensing of more positions as “key employees” and “primary management officials” than the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires. Increasing the fee paid for background investigations to reflect NIGC’s increased costs and eliminating references to the defunct practice of approval by the Secretary of the Interior would bring NIGC’s management contract regulations up to date.
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The NIGC is an independent regulatory agency established within the Department of the Interior pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
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