"In recent years, charity bingo has been unable to compete with the richer prizes and slot machine-type bingo games allowed at Indian casinos in California. Alarmed by dwindling bingo revenues, the Catholic Church, one of the state's biggest charity bingo operators, pushed a bill by state Sen. Gill Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, to double the $250 prize limit in charity bingo games. Meanwhile at the behest of a handful of local charities, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, introduced a bill to legalize bingo machines.

Unwilling to tolerate any serious competition with their gambling operations, the tribes initially fought both bills. As a chronology put together by The Sacramento Bee's Steve Wiegand makes clear, the tribes prevailed at almost every legislative hearing. Not coincidentally, the tribes have contributed $656,700 to 70 of the Legislature's 120 members in the first six months of 2008.

After the tribes announced their opposition, Steinberg quickly dropped his bill to allow electronic bingo at charity bingo parlors. The Cedillo bill was amended to give big charities the power to consolidate and simulcast their operations. Anything that might have constituted a real threat to the tribes' slot machine monopoly was deleted."

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Editorial: If tribes want it – BINGO! – they get it (The Sacramento Bee 9/4)
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