San Pablo gaming dealt blow in D.C.

Contra Costa Times ^ | 6/30/5 | Tom Lochner

[SmithL]

The future of gambling in San Pablo took a hit Wednesday when a bill that would stop an Indian tribe from operating gaming machines in this city handily passed a U.S. Senate committee in Washington.

The vote by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on the bill, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif., was 10-3.

Some East Bay lawmakers said Tuesday's vote shows that Indian gaming's spread into urban areas through "reservation-shopping" thwarts the public will.

But San Pablo officials, who count on electronic bingo to pump an extra $3.95 million into city coffers next fiscal year, denounced the bill as a betrayal of the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians. They accused Feinstein of callous disregard for West Contra Costa residents.

"Candidly, we're outraged," San Pablo City Manager Brock Arner said at a City Hall news conference Wednesday, appearing with Councilman Paul Morris.

"This bill, if enacted, would cast another dark stain on the federal government's treatment of indigenous people.

"Sen. Feinstein has rejected the Lytton Rancheria's proposal to create jobs in West County through Casino San Pablo," Arner said, adding that Feinstein "and the other opponents of this economic tool have offered no solutions" to West County's social problems.

Tribal spokesman Doug Elmets predicted the bill would ultimately lose in Congress but did not elaborate. He said the tribe will forge ahead with its plan to install 500 electronic bingo machines by fall at Casino San Pablo, currently a cardroom offering mostly pai-gow and poker.

If Feinstein's bill does pass, Arner said the tribe would sue the federal government with the City Council's likely support. Attorneys for the tribe have said the bill calls for an unconstitutional taking of the tribe's property without just compensation.

Feinstein's legislation would rescind a rider Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, placed into a 2000 bill that exempted the Lytton Band from federal rules for gambling on newly acquired reservation land, thus allowing the tribe to install electronic bingo machines. Those machines, Class II under federal rules, require no state compact; Class III Las Vegas-type slot machines do.

Feinstein's bill will go next to the full Senate. It would then go to the House Resources Committee, followed by the full House, and finally to President Bush for signature.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said Tuesday's vote is "part of the groundswell of opinion at the federal and state level to take a fresh look at tribal casinos."

"The door is closing on off-reservation urban gaming," said Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia.

The Lytton Band's historic home is in Sonoma County; the tribe claims no historical links to the San Pablo area.

Arner scoffed at the idea that Feinstein wants to bring the Lytton Band under the same rules as other tribes.

"She wants to terminate," Arner said.

"People are dying in the streets of West Contra Costa because they have no hope, no hope for decent, living-wage jobs," Arner said. The bill could kill a planned youth/community center, he said. "It's a huge blow."

Miller lamented that "what began as a modest economic proposal" had "turned into a monstrosity." Last year, the tribe sought state approval for a 5,000 slot-machine, Las Vegas-style casino, later scaled down to 2,500 machines. Even so, the Legislature refused to ratify the tribe's compact with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Miller said that even though he does not support the Lytton expansion plan, "I also do not believe the senator's legislation to take the Lytton band's rights away is justified or appropriate."

[SmithL]

That's craps for the pseudo-reservation.

[Coyoteman]

Pomo? In San Pablo?

I better go back to school. I thought Pomo were 100+ miles north in the old days.

[RGSpincich]

Uh oh. San Pablo cleared out all the trailer parks for nothing.

[freepatriot32]

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