Rose: The fight over gaming compacts in California

Monday, May 14, 2007

"The California State Legislature is debating whether to allow a few tribes to greatly expand the number of slot machines in their casinos in return for sharing up to 25 percent of the revenue with the state.

The major stumbling block is the unions. Under the deals the tribes made with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, casino workers can only organize through an election. Union leaders point to some incidents in which employers have interfered with these elections. This, of course, is illegal. But it can stall the creation of a union for years.

Union leaders want casino employees to merely sign cards to join a union.

The second issue is that the compacts were negotiated prior to a recent important federal court decision, knocking out almost all of the regulations by the National Indian Gaming Commission to control tribal casinos. The problem dates back to the creation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."

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I. Nelson Rose: The Fight In California Over New Compacts (Poker Player News 5/14)