California's politically powerful Indian casino tribes and the state's major charities have worked out a "win-win" deal that would allow the charities to expand their bingo operations while preserving the tribes' constitutional monopoly on slot machines.
But the compromise, which has attracted a swarm of lobbyists in the waning days of the Legislature's session, might be a lose-lose for some small charities, particularly in the Sacramento area, and for manufacturers of electronic games that look and play like slot machines but are advertised as "electronic bingo" machines.
SACRAMENTO – The Catholic Church and California's Indian gaming tribes have struck a compromise that would permit a major expansion of conventional bingo while outlawing electronic versions played on machines that look and act a lot like slots.
Amendments outlining the agreement were inserted into a bill Monday, with lawmakers scrambling to wrap up business before adjourning for the year at the the end of the month.
If approved, Senate Bill 1369 would end a legal battle over bingo machines, a dispute that threatens hundreds of millions of dollars the tribes pay the state every year for the exclusive right to offer slots and other electronic gaming devices.
California Indian casinos experienced relatively flat growth last year, but still managed to pull in a record $7.8 billion, according to an independent financial analysis being released today.
The revenue from the state's 60 tribal casinos grew significantly less in 2007 than in recent years, partly as a result of the weak economy, according to Alan Meister, an economist with Analysis Group, a Los Angeles consulting firm.
But Meister said the market for tribal gambling in California, as well as the rest of the country, appears far from saturated and the outlook for Indian gaming as a whole remains positive.
Indian tribes are finding that gambling isn't as recession-proof as once thought.
Two new reports indicate that some of the same forces causing problems for retailers and manufacturers are hitting casinos as well.
“Native American casino operators are not immune,” Jacques Ouazana, a financial analyst for Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a report released last week.
The business experienced astronomical growth rates this decade as new casinos opened, but has reached a plateau, according to figures compiled by economist Alan Meister from casino operators.
SACRAMENTO -- California's gaming tribes and the Catholic Church have struck a compromise on a bill that would allow simulcasts of conventional bingo while outlawing bingo machines almost everywhere except on Indian reservations, a prominent lawmaker and tribal representatives said Monday.
"I think at this point we have addressed basically everyone's concerns," said Sen. Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat who will co-author the bipartisan legislation with Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert.
Most of the state's charities and nonprofits are expected to support the bill, but a smaller group of those that have generate much of their income from bingo machines opposes it.
SACRAMENTO – The Catholic Church and California's Indian gaming tribes have struck a compromise that would permit a major expansion of conventional bingo while outlawing electronic versions played on machines that look and act a lot like slots.
Amendments outlining the agreement were inserted into a bill yesterday with lawmakers scrambling to wrap up business before adjourning for the year at the end of the month.
If approved, Senate Bill 1369 would end a legal battle over bingo machines, a dispute that threatens hundreds of millions of dollars that the tribes pay the state every year for the exclusive right to offer slots and other electronic gaming devices.
On Oct. 3, 1985, you could have stood in a long line outside a liquor store a few blocks from the Capitol for a chance to buy a small piece of cardboard and win a big sum of money.
Today, you can do the same thing – only with no line.
That, in 50 words, is the story of the California Lottery – a 23-year-old anachronism that is among the worst performing of the country's 42 state lotteries.
While many other states' lotteries set sales records in the fiscal year that ended June 30, California lottery officials announced that revenues for the Golden State's games would be $275 million lower than the previous year.
SAN JACINTO, Calif. - After more than 50 years in effect, southern California Indian tribes are saying it's time to repeal a law that gives jurisdiction of criminal offenses in some reservations to the state.
The who's who of the region's Indian country gathered Aug. 11 at the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians reservation to denounce Public Law 280, which they say is a ''throwback'' to a different era and nowadays archaic in a new day for American Indians.
In recent months, Sacramento has seen a legal and media battle over charity bingo halls. The California Tribal Business Alliance (CTBA) and the Attorney General have been trying to shut down several charity bingo halls they say aren't complying with the rules set out for the game in state law. These so-called bingo parlors, they say, resemble Vegas casinos, with electronic "bingo" machines that look and play like slot machines or video poker.
The California Charity Bingo Association has fought back with an ad campaign accusing "powerful special interest groups" wanting to cut off money for disabled veterans and sick children.
Millions of dollars a year in gaming revenue are spent by county Indian tribes on hundreds of charitable organizations and causes that benefit a wide segment of San Diego’s population. Schools, chambers of commerce and groups that serve the poor, the elderly, the handicapped and victims of abuse are a few of the many organizations benefiting from Indian casinos and resorts.
But the tribes also help one another. Earlier this year, the Pala Band of Mission Indians, which operates the Pala Casino Resort and Spa, spent $1 million to purchase 10 new mobile homes for members of the neighboring La Jolla Band whose homes were lost in last year’s Poomacha wildfire.
State lawmakers have said the Winnemem Wintu Tribe should be recognized again by the federal government.
But leaders of the small north state band of American Indians said the call will only be ceremonial unless it is heard by members of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., and the tribe gains recognition once again with the federal government.
The status would bring federal aid for health care and housing, reserving 42 acres that was once the site of a tribal village in Jones Valley near Lake Shasta as trust land, and sovereignty for the tribe of 123 people, said Mark Franco, the tribe's headman.
A couple of citizens groups asked Gov. Schwarzenegger on Friday to investigate whether the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians is in violation of its state gambling agreement.
The organizations said recent criminal activity on the reservation has placed gamblers, law enforcement and the community in danger.
The groups said that activity puts the tribe in violation of its state gambling agreement -- known as a compact.
Stand Up for California!, a statewide gambling watchdog group, and a San Jacinto-area citizens group called Save Our Communities sent the letter in response to a series of recent violent events involving tribal members, including two police shootings that left three tribal members dead.
The La Jolla Indian band, one of the poorest tribes in San Diego County, has used volunteerism, timely planning, gifts from wealthy tribes and a bureaucracy-averse reservation government to jump ahead of many devastated communities in recovering from last fall's wildfires.
“Light years” is how Fred Sanford, an American Red Cross volunteer, described the difference. He worked with La Jolla after the Poomacha fire in October and is now a liaison with local Indian tribes.
Builders are just about finished replacing tribal homes on the remote reservation on the flanks of Palomar Mountain, and some of the last residents burned out in the fall will begin moving in today.
River Rock Casino’s revenues declined in the second quarter, although its new liquor license helped to blunt the impact of a slowing economy, the Geyserville casino reported Thursday.
"In June we began offering alcohol to our guests, and we believe that this has begun to have a positive impact on our business,” said Shawn Smyth, CEO of River Rock Entertainment Authority.
The tribal casino reported $33.7 million in sales for the quarter ending June 30, down about $1 million from the same period last year.
Still, sales rose 1.5 percent from the first quarter, in part because the casino began selling beer, wine and cocktails.
Win-River Casino’s scaled-down expansion of its south Redding gaming center got a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday.
The casino plans to invest $75 million that will include a four-story, 121-room hotel, a 930-space parking structure, a new 100-seat fine-dining restaurant, a remodeled 200-seat buffet and a remodeled casino that will accommodate a 20-table poker room.
Monday’s ceremony came three months after casino officials reported the slow economy — which has hit the gaming industry hard — forced them to downsize original plans.
EAST COUNTY – An East County planning group voted unanimously last night to oppose a request for a liquor license by Sycuan Casino, saying drunken drivers would be too dangerous on the winding road leading from the gambling hall.
Wally Riggs, chairman of the planning group for the Dehesa area, noted that Sycuan Casino's previous request for a liquor license was rejected by an administrative law judge 15 years ago. “All the things they listed in that judgment have not changed,” Riggs said. “They've gotten worse.”
Sycuan, one of the largest casinos in San Diego County, is the only casino in the county without a liquor license. Casino officials say that by limiting when and where alcohol is available, they can deal with concerns that led to the rejection.
Some 200 people gathered for today's public forum organized by the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians to discuss a federal act giving sheriff's deputies the power to enforce laws on reservations in Riverside County -- but no sheriff's officials ttended.
The focus of the meeting, held at the Soboba Springs golf club, was
Public Law 280, which was passed in 1953.
Representatives of the Pauma, Pala, La Jolla and other tribes attended, as well as officials from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Justice Department and other government entities, but sheriff's deputies stayed away.
The chairman of the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians wants tribe members to receive state law enforcement training so that they can patrol the reservation instead of Riverside County sheriff's deputies, whom the tribe has clashed with in recent months, according to City News Service.
Chairman Robert Salgado Sr. told a news service reporter during a break in a public forum Monday night that he planned to send eight tribal security officers to qualify for California Police Officer Standards and Training certification, a requirement for deputies, police and other law enforcement officers. The forum was called to discuss a federal law that gives local law enforcement agencies the authority over a number of tribes. Salgado did not return calls this afternoon.
The Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians held a daylong meeting Monday with leaders of other California tribes on a federal law that gives local law enforcement criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands.
The 55-year-old law has been criticized by Soboba Chairman Robert Salgado Sr. since three tribal members were killed in two shootouts with Riverside County sheriff's deputies in May.
Leaders from at least a dozen Indian tribes attended the meeting, which was designed to raise awareness of the limits of the law, called Public Law 280, and review legal options.
08/20/2008
Indian tribes, charities reach deal on bingo fundraisers
08/20/2008
Church, gaming tribes reach deal on bingo machines
08/19/2008
08/19/2008
Economy affecting casinos' cash flow
08/19/2008
Church, tribes reach compromise on bingo