Editorial: Guidiville Band casino in wrong place

Thursday, October 15, 2009  

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has helped bring an expansion of casino gambling to the state during his tenure, is finally drawing the line. He has joined the chorus in opposing a plan for Las Vegas-style gambling at Point Molate in Richmond.

The proposed site, as the governor notes in a please-don't letter to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, is the wrong spot for a new casino. Schwarzenegger has struck deals that increased gambling in exchange for more state revenue, a position that's contributed to larger-scale California casinos.

But the Republican governor - along with Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer - is opposing the land transfers for the bayside casino plan for an important reason: It would open the floodgates to casinos in urban areas, not the rural locations that voters intended in two statewide ballot measures that gave the go-ahead to tribal gaming.

These leaders are right to put the brakes on the Point Molate site. Opening up there, north of the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, would shred the general bargain between voters and the tribes: Reservations with few economic resources could host casinos in a bid for tribal self-help. These ballot measures - and the tribal leaders who backed them - never anticipated acres of slot machines in the Bay Area or other population centers."

Get the Story:
Editorial: A bad bet (The San Francisco Chronicle 10/15)