Valley Center tribes would be able to expand gambling

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
Thursday, April 24, 2008

A bill that could dramatically increase the number of slot machines at two North County casinos cleared its first test Tuesday in Sacramento.

Senate Bill 1201, written by Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, would expand the number of slot machine licenses statewide from about 60,000 to 122,000. That would help tribes statewide, including the Rincon and San Pasqual bands in Valley Center. They own casinos in North County and want more machines, but the state says no more licenses are available.

Supporters say the bill is a matter of fairness for tribes that signed agreements with the state in 1999 that allow them to operate up to 2,000 slots.

“By unfairly restricting the number” of slot machine licenses, “the state deprives San Pasqual of its most significant economic resource,” the tribe said in a statement supporting the bill.

Opponents, including the Pala band in North County, say the bill is unfair to them. The Pala tribe and several others renegotiated their agreements with the state in 2004 to get more slots in exchange for paying larger fees to Sacramento.

“It is an attempt to illegally rewrite the 1999 compacts retroactively for tribes to exceed the device limit and compete unfairly with tribes” that agreed to pay more, according to Pala’s statement opposing the bill.

The bill would also undermine Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s efforts to get more money from casinos, one of the key selling points for the agreements he has renegotiated, including four approved by voters in the Feb. 5 election.

The bill was approved on an 8-1 vote in the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization. Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, who is a member of the committee, abstained from voting.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.
(c) North County Times.

Posted on April 24th, 2008 by hunwut
Filed under: Gaming, Reservations