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Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation wants California to see the other side of the casino floor.
Not the slot floor or the felt tables. The paychecks, the tax filings and the city budgets that tribal gaming touches across the state, to the tune of $26.5 billion a year, according to a new public awareness campaign the tribe launched this week.
The campaign, called Committed to California, runs across outdoor ads, digital media and print placements, all pointing back to a new site, TribesForCalifornia.com, that lays out the numbers behind the state’s tribal gaming industry. San Manuel says it is the first of California’s 109 federally recognized tribes to run a campaign like it.
What’s behind the $26.5 billion figure
The numbers come from the Indian Gaming Association’s 2026 annual report, built by Dupris Consulting Group using IMPLAN’s economic modeling. Tribal governments and tribal enterprises generated $25.4 billion in economic output in California last year.
That figure is projected to reach $26.5 billion in 2026, a number that measures the total ripple of spending, wages and taxes tribal gaming generates statewide, not just casino revenue.
| Statewide Tribal Gaming (2026 projected) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Economic output | $26.5 billion |
| Jobs supported | 151,210 |
| Annual wages and compensation | $10.2 billion |
| Tax revenue | $5.1 billion |
San Manuel, based in Highland, credits its own operations with $3.2 billion of that statewide total.
| Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation | Figure |
|---|---|
| Annual economic output | $3.2 billion |
| Jobs supported | 20,782 |
| Wages and benefits paid | $627 million |
| State and local government revenue | $208 million |
| Philanthropic giving since 2001 | Nearly $500 million |
Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena tied the campaign back to 1998, when California voters passed Proposition 5 and opened the door to tribal gaming statewide.
“Today, many people know that tribal communities have grown stronger, but fewer realize how deeply tribal gaming contributes to the economic success of our state,” Valbuena said. “Through Committed to California, we’re sharing that story.”
Why San Manuel is going public now
Tribal gaming making its economic case isn’t new. A single tribe fronting a statewide ad campaign to make it is, and it lands in a year when California tribes have spent as much time in court protecting their gaming exclusivity as they have talking about the jobs it creates.
The Ninth Circuit ruled Sept. 16 that Kalshi’s sports contracts amount to illegal gaming when accessed from tribal land, a win for Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of the Me-Wuk Indians in their fight against the prediction market operator. Separately, tribes and cardrooms have spent much of the year fighting over banked card games in a dispute still working through the courts and the Attorney General’s office.
Committed to California doesn’t mention either fight. It doesn’t have to. A campaign built entirely around jobs, paychecks and community giving reads differently in a year when tribal exclusivity is the thing actually being litigated.
The campaign arrives ahead of California Native American Day this Friday, and San Manuel says it will keep running through the rest of the year.
That’s the other side of the ledger Committed to California wants Californians looking at.
“Our future is connected to the future of our state,” Valbuena said, “and we’ve always been committed to California.”
