Editorial: Tribal gaming has to end somewhere

Monday, February 7, 2005  

"Bay Area officials were shocked when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last year that he had negotiated a compact with the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to open a giant 5,000-slot-machine casino in San Pablo, twice as many slots as in any other tribal casino in California and more than in any casino in Las Vegas.

Worse still, the casino was smack in the San Francisco Bay metro area, violating the promise that casinos would be limited to ancestral tribal lands in rural areas. The protest over the size was so strong that Schwarzenegger quickly renegotiated the compact to allow only 2,500 machines. Still, the controversy has prompted the Legislature to put off approving the deal.

A larger issue is the lack of state guidelines on gambling. When Californians voted to allow tribal casinos, they were promised there would be only moderate growth of gambling on rural tribal lands. But casino gambling has mushroomed to an estimated $6-billion-a-year business that is inching closer to cities and enjoys only a modicum of regulation by the state. Californians deserve to know if there is any end in sight."

Get the Story:
Editorial: How Far Will Gambling Go? (The Los Angeles Times 2/4)
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