"Under federal law, tribes are permitted to offer on their reservations the kind of gambling that the state allows for non-Indians. In California, that means Class II games, primarily bingo and lotteries.

Indian casinos are lucrative because tribes are also permitted to offer what non-Indians can't - Class III devices, which means slot machines. To offer slots, tribes have to negotiate compacts with the state.

Now there is a new generation of machines that look like slots, are played like slots but offer electronic bingo and lottery games. These machines blur the distinction between Class III and Class II gambling. The state's authority over them is unclear.

Unwilling to negotiate new compacts that would require them to give a bigger slice of their profits to the state in exchange for the right to add more slots, some tribes in California are flooding their casinos with these Class II bingo and lottery slots. Tribes that have negotiated the new compacts are then at a disadvantage."

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Editorial: New gambling challenge (The Sacramento Bee 2/8)