Contracting with Seminole Nation

REVIEW SUMMARY
What. Doing business with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
Issue. Businesses must register, but opportunities abound.
Impact. Gambling expansion fuels business for tribe's vendors.

With millions of potential business in their backyards, Tony Alves thought local companies would be lining up to work with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. What the vice president of operations for Seminole Casino Immokalee found out, though, is they just didn't know how.

It's a situation Alves discovered when contacting local car dealerships to ask why they weren't doing business with the casino. “They all pretty much said, 'We'd love to do business with you,'” Alves recalls. “Well, why aren't you?” he asked them. To which several replied: “I don't know how.”