Trump Administration's Key Appointment Impacts Tribal Gaming Agency

The Trump administration’s highest-ranking Indian Country official is serving double duty in overseeing tribal gaming with a new appointment at the federal agency overseeing the $43.9 billion tribal gaming industry. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs William “Billy” Kirkland has joined the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). He will be serving a three-year term at the agency, according to a news release.

“The Trump administration supports tribal sovereignty and economic development,” Kirkland said in the June 1 news release. “Gaming is an important contributor to the economic success of many tribes.” 

“I look forward to working alongside my fellow commissioners and NIGC staff to support a strong regulatory framework that upholds the integrity and success of Indian gaming,” Kirkland added.

According to the news release, Kirkland formally joined the NIGC on May 29. A notice of his position was first published in the Federal Register on April 27, with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum calling him “well qualified” to serve as an Indian gaming regulator.

“Mr. Kirkland’s career in public service includes serving in the Executive Office of the President as special assistant to the President and deputy director of Intergovernmental Affairs,” the notice signed by Secretary Burgum stated.

“In this role, he led tribal engagement efforts for the White House, revitalized the White House Council on Native American Affairs Policy Agenda, and coordinated the first-ever Oval Office recognition of Navajo Code Talkers,” the notice continued. “His work advanced collaboration among federal, tribal, state, and local leaders, strengthening government-to-government relationships nationwide.”

Kirkland, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, joins Sharon Avery as the only other member of the NIGC. She too welcomed her new colleague.

“We are pleased to have Mr. Kirkland join the commission,” Avery, a citizen of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe, said in NIGC’s news release. “His background and commitment to public service will strengthen the agency’s work and strengthen our ongoing support to tribal gaming regulators.”

Avery was appointed to the NIGC during the administration of former president Joe Biden, a Democrat. She joined the agency for a three-year term in May 2024 as an Associate Commissioner and ended up serving as “acting” chair for nearly 20 months following the departure earlier that year of E. Sequoyah Simermeyer, who had served in the U.S. Senate-confirmed post for more than four years — a period that included the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, tribes shut down their casinos to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Their revenues suffered greatly as a result, with Simermeyer announcing a decline in revenues to levels that hadn’t been seen in two decades.

Tribal gaming revenues have since rebounded. Last July, the NIGC announced a record $43.9 billion for fiscal year 2024, the most recent year for which figures are available.

As the newest Associate Commissioner of the NIGC, Kirkland will soon be joining Avery for the next announcement of tribal gross gaming revenues. The figures are typically announced in June or July of each year.

Despite his new role, Kirkland does not have direct experience in the gaming industry. But the issue came up during his nomination hearing to be Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs on July 17, 2025 — due to his past as a politically connected figure in his home state of Georgia.

During the hearing, Kirkland confirmed that he worked for a religious-based organization called Faith and Freedom Coalition that had opposed tribal casinos, only for its founder and leader Ralph Reed to have been exposed as accepting money from Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist who made tens of millions of dollars from tribes with casinos and later went to federal prison for bilking his tribal clients.

“When I worked for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, we focused on working with and educating voters on matters of faith that were important to the faith-based community,” Kirkland said in response to questions from Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

“I never met Jack Abramoff or conducted any business with him,” Kirkland asserted.

Reed was never charged in connection with the Abramoff scandal, which resulted in nearly a dozen U.S. government officials — including a Republican member of Congress — going to prison for their role in scamming tribes. Kirkland, however, appeared to distance himself from his former colleague despite both being well connected political figures in Georgia.

When reminded by Luján about Abramoff’s role in cheating tribes out of tens of millions of dollars through a scheme that benefited Reed financially, Kirkland responded: “I don’t think it is okay to defraud anyone. I have never met Jack Abramoff.”

More recently, Luján pressed Kirkland about his pending appointment to the NIGC. At an oversight hearing on May 10, Kirkland said it was critical for the agency to gain new leadership to address the absence of a chair.

“I think it’s fair to say, sir, that we had an unprecedented resignation that has put a lot of tribes and tribal economies and economic development at risk, and we wanna make sure that gap is filled as possible,” Kirkland told Luján at the hearing.

A month prior, Jeannie Hovland, a citizen of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, resigned from the NIGC after serving for more than five years. Her departure left the agency with just Avery on board — potentially hindering some of the NIGC’s operations that are dictated by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). “We wanna make sure that the duties that the [commission] is responsible for can take place,” Kirkland said.

“In the meantime, I will ensure that things like contracts can be put in place, management contracts, and other other operations of the [commission] can fully operate,” added Kirkland, describing some of the duties laid out by IGRA, a federal law that was first enacted in 1988.

Despite the urgency, Luján wasn’t completely convinced of the need for Kirkland to serve two jobs in the administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican. He asked the Assistant Secretary to submit a letter explaining how he will handle his duties at the NIGC in addition to those at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration.

Luján also noted that tribes have been at odds with the Trump administration over the regulation of businesses known as prediction markets. Tribes with federally-approved gaming compacts have filed lawsuits in multiple states — including New Mexico — to ensure their sovereign rights are protected.

The NIGC consists of three members: the chair and two associate commissioners. As dictated by IGRA, only the chair position requires nomination by the president and confirmation by the Senate. The other two associate commissioners are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.

According to IGRA, “at least” two members of the NIGC “shall be enrolled members of any Indian tribe.” Kirkland and Avery are enrolled citizens of their respective tribes.

After Simermeyer’s departure as the chair of NIGC in 2024, then-president Biden nominated Patrice H. Kunesh to lead the agency. Despite being approved by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, she was never brought up for a confirmation vote by the Republican-controlled Senate following the November presidential election that year.

Kunesh’s nomination, incidentally, was opposed by then-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. He has since left the Senate to join President Trump’s cabinet — he is now serving as Secretary of Homeland Security and is the first Native person to lead the Department of Homeland Security.