"Thankfully, plans for a massive Indian-run casino on the beautiful Point Molate shoreline of Richmond appear destined for a long-overdue burial. Now, it's time for Congress to get behind U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's proposal to block similarly inappropriate casino plans elsewhere.

For six years, Richmond leaders have pushed the plans for a gaming center with more slot machines than the largest facility in Nevada. It would have turn Richmond, West Contra Costa and, indeed, the Bay Area into a gambling center.

Finally, city voters were asked last month what they thought of the idea and they overwhelming said they didn't want it. At the same time, voters elected a solid council majority opposed to the casino -- a council that will take control in January with the clear legal authority, and intent, to kill the plan.

We've heard rumblings that the lame-duck council might try to rush through approval of the project before it loses control of the city. We hope council members won't be that stupid.

Any such move would be political suicide for Nat Bates and Jim Rogers, the two casino supporters who will remain on the council next month. And defeated incumbents Maria Viramontes and Myrna Lopez could forget about any comeback if they ever hoped to run for elective office again.

Meanwhile, there's a bigger question: How did we get this far? When state voters in 2000 approved gambling on existing Indian land, they never envisioned the now-common "reservation shopping" in which small landless tribes look for prime urban property far from their original homelands for casinos."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Put a stop to reservation shopping for casinos (MediaNews 12/6)

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