The tribe has yet to outline its strategy, says The Independent, but 'nothing too drastic needs to be done to the basic business plan'. Now they've clinched the entire 124-strong chain, they're promising something even better. When they opened their first Hard Rock venue, they topped the chain's traditional guitar smashing ceremony with 'a team of ten skydiving Elvis impersonators'. One thing's for sure, says The Sunday Times, these guys 'know how to throw a party'. The Seminole Indians: a 'tremendous opportunity' 'They're Rainmakers, in every sense of the word.' Others soon copied: the Seminoles were thus the pioneers of a mighty pan-American tribal gaming empire now pumping out more than $20bn annually. The Seminoles' first 'high-stakes bingo hall' was a ramshackle affair, but it piled on the profits paving the way for a thriving, Florida-based casino empire generating some $900m a year for the 3,300-strong tribe, notes USA Today. Then, in 1979, under a colourful chief, James Billie, they became the first Native American tribe to move into gambling. The Seminole Indians: from bingo halls to Hard Rock For the next 30 years, they eked out a living from tobacco, citrus fruit and cattle. After four decades, the hostilities ceased but it wasn't until the 1950s that the tribe acquired sovereign nation status. The Seminoles have always been fighters, says the FT: they boast they never surrendered during the mid-19th century American Indian wars, despite coming close to extinction after being cornered in alligator-infested swamps by federal troops.

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