"It's no secret or surprise that corruption has followed. Gambling is a cash business. The tens of billions of dollars that disappear into slot machines operated by self-regulated Indian casinos are an invitation to thieves, money launderers, drug dealers and, as the Abramoff scandal shows, slick-talking influence peddlers.

Flush with gambling proceeds, some tribes have tried to run roughshod over state and local governments and non-Indian neighbors. Asserting sovereign rights and immunity from lawsuits, tribes have been able to avoid the normal civil and criminal law enforcement attention and regulatory scrutiny that non-Indian gambling operators routinely and appropriately receive.

No one is accusing the Agua Caliente band of wrongdoing. Still, the tribe's association with Abramoff should make some things uncomfortably obvious.

The tribe spent millions last year to push an initiative that would have supplanted gambling deals negotiated by the governor with new deals dictated by the tribes. Meanwhile, the tribe — which doles out millions in each election cycle — has argued in court that its sovereign status exempts it from the state Fair Political Practices Act. The tribe says it does not have to tell who gets its political contributions."

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Gaming tribes befouled in lobbying scandal filth (The Modesto Bee 1/23)