Wipfli Serves 115 Tribal Casinos With Accounting, Tech, and Strategy

A National Firm With a Tribe-by-Tribe Approach

Wipfli works with approximately 115 tribal casinos across the United States, and the firm’s job is not to hand every client the same playbook. As sovereign nations, each tribe carries its own priorities, and Grant Eve, a Wipfli Partner and Gaming and Tribal Government Leader, says the starting point is always the same: listen first.

“Those tribal leaders can focus on what their strategy or plan is and implement that over the next year or next several years,” Eve said, as reported by CDC Gaming. “How much profit should we send back to the tribe? How much profit should we reinvest in the property? Or is it tribal employment, if you’re a more rural facility that may not have a large population to draw from.”

Wipfli is a national accounting, tax, and advisory firm. Because it organizes by industry rather than geography, the firm can offer clients a broader comparative view than a regional practice typically would. That scope matters when you’re advising operations that range from small rural properties to large destination casinos.

More Than Auditors

The public perception of firms like Wipfli tends to stop at spreadsheets. Eve is used to pushing past that assumption.

“A lot of people think if you’re an accounting or consulting firm, it’s just auditors or accountants,” Eve said. “But on the software side, we got a huge ERP system. For finance transformation, we’ve put over 110 casinos on Sage Intacct in the cloud. We’re partners with Salesforce and several other large software companies.”

The service list extends further, to cybersecurity, construction auditing, and architecture and engineering support. But Eve describes the core as audit work, outsourced accounting services, and technology.

That technology angle keeps surfacing in conversations with tribal leaders. Eve noted that technology now shapes marketing efficiency in meaningful ways, pointing to a finding in Wipfli’s own Cost of Doing Business Report. “This year marketing expense declines while revenue increases,” he said. “That’s when operators become more targeted with promotional investment, but that comes from technology and player analytics and being able to be effective with it.”

Strong Revenue, But Capital Demands Are Rising

The backdrop for all of this is a tribal gaming industry in solid financial shape. The National Indian Gaming Commission reported that tribal operators yielded $46.2 billion in revenue for 2025, according to CDC Gaming. That is a robust number by any measure.

But Eve points out that strong topline revenue does not eliminate pressure on operations. Depreciation expenses are higher, and many tribes are actively investing capital back into their properties, whether that means new food and beverage outlets, additional machines, or expanded casino floor sections.

“We usually have a lot of conversations around the capital reinvestment rates and what that means, maybe not this year, but maybe in two, three, or four years,” Eve said. “These can be long-term plans.”

The process Wipfli uses to get tribes to that planning stage follows a clear arc: listen, learn, and then build an understanding of a tribe’s goals before any recommendations land on the table. The firm’s Cost of Doing Business Report serves as a snapshot tool, covering revenue, expenses, and food and beverage performance across tribal operations.

Prediction Markets Are Watching

The one area where Eve’s tone shifts from advisory to cautionary involves prediction markets. These products, which he describes as looking and feeling almost identical to traditional wagering, now sit outside the regulatory structures and compact arrangements that govern tribal gaming. The Commodities Future Trading Commission has been deemed the authority over them, which places them in a different lane entirely.

Eve told CDC Gaming that he advises tribes to watch this space closely. The competitive and regulatory implications for operators who have built their businesses inside traditional gaming frameworks are significant, and the picture is still developing.

For now, Wipfli’s work with tribal clients stays grounded in the fundamentals: clean financials, smart technology deployment, and long-range capital planning that accounts for both opportunity and risk. The $46.2 billion revenue figure shows a strong foundation. What tribes build on top of it, and how they protect it, is where the real work begins.