Nearly 200 people were injured at least 10 were killed in tour bus crashes in southern California, KPCC reports. But tribes are distancing themselves from questionable operators:
Buses that carry people to and from casinos are part of a booming business in Southern California, but as these buses have soared in popularity, KPCC found regulation has become more lax. At the same time, casino buses have been beset by a string of recent deadly accidents. On a recent afternoon at the vast San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, gamblers crowded around the roulette table and tried their luck at blackjack or one of the thousands of slot machines. If you walked through the smoky haze, past the window where, if you’re lucky, you cash in your chips, you reached an area called the Bus Lobby where coaches line up, picking up and dropping off gamblers, whisking them to almost 30 stops in Southern California. “You go to a casino now days and it looks like an intercity bus station,” said Dr. Joseph P. Schwieterman, a transportation expert at DePaul University in Chicago. “You look at the size of the sector and you see it as really exploding. It’s pretty remarkable that we have this whole public transit system in the United States feeding these casinos. The bus industry at the casinos has just been hand-in-hand.” But the casinos – none of which would talk to us - don’t see it that way. They prefer keeping the bus companies at arms-length, casting them off as merely independent operators.Get the Story: