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insofar as California’s tribal gaming industry
is characterized by coordination among
producers, low
labor-intensiveness, and the need to portray to
potentially hostile outside constituencies (not
only clients
but unions and the state) the social benefits of
Indian gaming, we would expect the labor regime
for
workers (both Native Americans and local
non-Indians) to be organized hegemonically.
Research Agenda. For this portion of the
research I will engage in participant
observation as a
croupier in a casino in each context. My
observations during my initial research trip
revealed that
casinos are in fact being staffed by black
workers. Based upon my conversations with
corporate
representatives and casino managers in South
Africa regarding both my research and previous
work experience as a three-game dealer in
Nevada, I have a good chance of being granted a
temporary, unpaid internship working in a casino
there(ideally at the SunWest described above).
And I am optimistic as well about my chances of
securing employment in California, considering
the shortage of experienced personnel in this
new market. The degree of access such
ethnographic research would give me to not only
managers and casino operations, but to workers
themselves (and especially how they experience
the forms of “empowerment” described in the
discourse of industry and state leaders), would
be invaluable and relatively unprecedented.
Physical sites
While much of the physical structure of a casino
is determined by the technical necessities of
operating and regulating the various forms of
gambling, considerable leeway exists for
variation in
architecture, design and “theming.” My
hypothesis here is that in South Africa the
physical sites are
designed to emphasize the role of Western
corporations in all aspects of casino gambling,
while in
California corporate connections are concealed
and the role of casinos in benefiting tribal
culture and
promoting political sovereignty emphasized.
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