"Nobody would ever claim that California's Indian tribes are pushovers at the bargaining table, especially in their current guise as Vegas-scale gambling entrepreneurs.

But one wonders whether the reason the biggest casino tribes have shown so much spine in facing down Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand to share their slot machine action is because they've been quietly preparing a Plan B, derived from this question: When is a slot machine not a slot machine?

The question is relevant because the state-tribal compacts governing Indian gaming in California forbid any tribe to deploy more than 2,000 slots in its casinos. For such tribes as Southern California's Morongo, Pechanga and Agua Caliente, that doesn't come close to satisfying demand: On a weekend night at Pechanga, you better be prepared to wait in line for a slot machine to become available."

Get the Story:
Michael Hiltzik: New Slot Machines Without Strings (The Los Angeles Times 6/21)
pwlat