Column: Feinstein against reservation shopping

Thursday, May 11, 2006  

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein warned Tuesday that California may need a new statewide initiative to halt the proliferation of off-reservation gambling if tribes continue to find ways around current regulations.

"What people believed were small gaming establishments have grown into a syndicate of Las Vegas-style establishments with little oversight,'' Feinstein said from her office in Washington, D.C.

In turn, she said, the lack of supervision has opened the door to corruption -- "skimming, fixing machines and the like.''

Feinstein's comments come as tribes in California and elsewhere are rushing through a loophole that emerged in pending Senate legislation that would limit off-reservation gambling.

Feinstein said she may now back a move on the Senate floor to block the rush of new tribes.

But she also said it may be time for Californians -- who voted in 1998 and 2000 to allow gambling on tribal lands -- to go back to the ballot to make clear that tribal lands don't refer to newly declared reservations."

Get the Story:
Matier and Ross: Dianne dial-up [last item of article] (The San Francisco Chronicle 5/10)