Opinion: United Auburn casino will hurt Nevada

Monday, April 21, 2008  

"As my regular readers know, I'm not a big fan of virtually unregulated American Indian and/or Internet gambling. The huge Thunder Valley tribal casino near Auburn, Calif., just off I-80 on the way to Reno represents a major economic threat to struggling casinos in the Reno/Tahoe area as Nevada gaming regulators continue to ignore that threat.

Thunder Valley, owned by the United Auburn Tribe and operated by a Nevada gaming licensee, Station Casinos of Las Vegas, just announced a massive $400 million expansion that will siphon off even more gamblers bound for Northern Nevada. This definitely wasn't what the all-powerful Nevada Gaming Commission had in mind when it adopted Regulation 5.010 requiring gaming licensees to operate "in the best interests of the people of the state of Nevada."

Casino gambling is a privileged industry in Nevada and the Gaming Commission can impose reasonable requirements on its licensees as long as they aren't "arbitrary and capricious." In other words, a Nevada gaming license is a privilege, not a right. That basic precept was enacted into law by the State Legislature shortly before I went to work for the Commission and investigative Gaming Control Board in 1963 under then-Gov. Grant Sawyer, who was elected on a "hang tough" gaming control platform. One of my first challenges as Sawyer's gaming control press spokesman was the high-profile Frank Sinatra license revocation case.

We revoked Sinatra's gambling license for hosting his friend, Chicago Godfather Sam "Momo" Giancana, at the singer's North Lake Tahoe Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino. That was a landmark case in Nevada gaming control history and I urge the Commission and Control Board to make history again by taking a hard look at licensees who operate Indian casinos that compete directly with Nevada casinos. In the 1960s, Nevada licensees had to choose between their interests inside and outside the Silver State. I still think that's a reasonable requirement in a privileged industry."

Get the Story:
Guy W. Farmer: Indian casino will be a blow to Northern Nevada (The Nevada Appeal 4/20)