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Tribes look far afield for casino sites
Sacramento Bee ^ | 6/11/6 | Todd Milbourn

Posted on 06/11/2006 8:14:59 AM PDT by SmithL

An Indian tribe rooted in Lake County is pushing a Las Vegas-style casino in the East Bay.

Tribes from Humboldt and San Diego counties are vying to open casinos along busy Interstate 15 in Barstow.

And a tribe from Oklahoma is searching beyond its reservation -- even across state lines -- to build a casino near Denver.

Across the country, Indian tribes, often backed by wealthy investors, are aspiring to build casinos in lucrative markets -- even if those spots bear little or no historic connection to the tribe.

The trend is often assailed as "reservation shopping." It's stoking a national debate that might reshape the $20 billion-a-year Indian gaming industry.

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are leading the charge to corral the practice. Both argue that some tribes and their non-Indian backers are simply trying to get rich off a law intended to alleviate tribal poverty.

"This is not what the public thought they were getting when they approved Indian gaming," said Alison Harvey, executive director of the California Tribal Business Alliance, a Sacramento-based tribal gambling association that generally opposes off-reservation gaming. "It's coming to a head."

California already is the nation's largest Indian gambling state, home to 55 casinos that generate $13 billion a year, according to the state attorney general.

Across the state, at least 40 tribes are proposing off-reservation casinos, according to Stand Up for California, a Penryn-based gambling watchdog group.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: casino; indians

1 posted on 06/11/2006 8:15:02 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

What's with Indians and gambling? It seems you can't have one without the other.


2 posted on 06/11/2006 8:26:55 AM PDT by rickmichaels
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To: SmithL

I spend some time at casinos, looking at the people. What I am looking for is someone that actually looks HAPPY, but I don't see that. Instead, I see people intently staring at the slots, or whatever game they are playing, and they are not even smiling. I can't recall a single exception, but then, I never did catch anyone in the process of winning anything.

So, it costs me nothing to spend a few minutes in a casino, except for sometimes I enjoy a meal there, and that has always been excellent, and reasonably priced.

What gambling in a casino is, is a tax on people who do not understand mathematics. After all, we do owe the Natives something!


3 posted on 06/11/2006 8:37:01 AM PDT by RonHolzwarth ("History repeats itself - first as tragedy, then as farce" - Karl Marx)
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To: RonHolzwarth

Why can't I have a casino ?


4 posted on 06/11/2006 8:52:18 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: SmithL
The organized crime in this country, finances the building of these casinos. The Indians run them like the mob, cutting out competitors using legislation and judges.

Anyone that believes in a sovereign nation, with justice for all, or equal protection under the law, will NOT give them a dime.

I have never figured out why in a country with such riches, we still give the Indians such special treatment. In Washington State, the tribes used the money from gambling, to keep slots out of non-tribal places of business, by buying advertising to influence the vote. They outspent the other side by something like 25 million to $10,000. They then pushed for a smoking ban in Pierce county, to give them another advantage (smoking on reservations is not subject to state law). Then when that was struck down by judges, they pushed for a state law to disallow smoking anywhere people work for a living, except for......tribal casinos of course.

Now they have been building gas stations, pumping fuel to all without collecting the $.31 a gallon gas tax. But wait, they get to collect the tax, and keep it to improve their roads, of course the state keeps the roads up anywhere in the state, but don't get picky.

They are building shopping malls, to sell clothes to the general public. They collect the 8.6% sales tax, and not remit it to the state, because they are not subject to the govt. They have been allowed to purchase land OFF the reservations, apply for exemptions, and the land then becomes tribal land, not subject to state law.

Soon anyone trying to compete with them will be out of business, but the tribes will buy them up cheaply, and the same businesses that used to pay taxes to the state and feds, will then be outside the system.

Unless the federal govt gets us out of this system, that allows tribal members to be "super citizens" we will continues down this road to Balkanization. Between the illegals pouring in over the Southern border, and the tribes, the numbers of those paying taxes will shrink, while those outside the system collect the cream.

5 posted on 06/11/2006 4:36:37 PM PDT by jeremiah (How much did we get for that rope?)
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To: SmithL

Rumor hazit the San Manuel Indians are looking to put a casino near me in the Lake Arrowhead area of CA. They already have one down the hill in Highland.


6 posted on 06/11/2006 4:40:50 PM PDT by socal_parrot (Pass)
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