Andrew Gellatly

A meeting of Southern California’s wealthiest gaming tribes this week confirmed their opposition to the federal internet gambling proposals being put forward by Barney Frank and others, a move that looks set to bring the lobbying power of Indian Country into play in Washington.

The Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations (TASIN) met on Monday on the remote Chemehuevi Indian reservation in eastern California, near Lake Havasu.

While the group is still formulating the exact language of their resolution, the overwhelming vote to oppose attempts to introduce federal internet gambling legislation by Congressmen Barney Frank and Jim McDermott and by US Senator Bob Menendez opens a new front in the battle to regulate online gaming in the US.

The tribes fear a significant loss of hard-won sovereignty if federally licensed operators are allowed to offer casino games online across California and they strongly distrust elements of the proposed bills that would introduce a federal gaming tax on deposits, effectively siphoning money from Californian players’ pockets to the national treasury.

TASIN comprises 14 of southern California’s most successful gaming tribes, including the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.

Their political lobbying forces are considerable - Pechanga alone spent more than $44m in political contributions in 2008, with Morongo dispensing another $39m.

“We are moving quickly to get the message out that Indian Country is forming a war party to address this issue - this will be the first of a series of actions across Indian Country,” said Michael Lombardi, chairman of the Augustine Band of Mission Indians, who was present at the vote.

At last month’s Western Indian Gaming Congress in Palm Springs, California’s tribal leaders that comprise the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) failed to establish their own consensus on the issue of internet gambling or on the controversial internet poker initiative being proposed by the Morongo.

But this week’s vote marks a clear turning point.

“The fact that TASIN passed this resolution is significant, even though there is still division over the Morongo initiative,” said one Washington DC-based lobbyist close to the issue.

According to Lombardi, the next step will be for the TASIN tribes to hold meetings with lobbyists to establish a detailed response and a position paper. “The lobbying strategy will unfold in the next two weeks,” he told GamblingCompliance.

“This was all done without the benefit of the lobbyists - tribal leaders woke up and took action against this cynical effort by Barney Frank to tip his beak into tribal treasuries.

“The US Treasury is the reason we’re in this [financial] mess, we don’t want them to get a shake at the California tribes’ revenues.”

The TASIN vote is already creating waves in Washington as the advocates of federal legislation assess their likely next steps.

“The pro-Frank forces had been talking up the idea of a mark-up for their bill in February - there are now clear signs that it being put off until March,” said one observer.

Tribal leaders from TASIN are expected to arrive in Washington DC today to attend a meeting of the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) where the subject of internet gambling will again be discussed, though it is thought unlikely the national group will adopt a position on the question of internet regulation before their annual meeting in April.

In the meantime pro-Indian lobbyists already have a clear idea of what will be required to defeat Frank’s legislative proposal.

At a recent CNIGA meeting on the subject of internet gaming Scott Dacey of the Washington lobbying firm PACE explained: “In order for us to beat back that legislation we have to win back nine of the 42 Democrats that are on the House Financial Services Committee.

“Of those 42 Democrats on the committee 14 have already co-sponsored the legislation, so for us to get the majority plus one of the committee we’ve got to pull nine Democrats away from Chairman Frank in order to get this done.”

Dacey warned: “It’s going to be very difficult but vigilance is warranted, because this legislation could be exceptionally detrimental to bricks and mortar casinos.”

Opponents of Frank’s legislation have already been heartened by the recent Senate election in Massachusetts which saw the Democrats cede the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy to the Republicans and in doing so surrender their filibuster-proof Senate majority.

Lobbyists believe the change in the balance of power in the Senate means Democrat politicians in marginal voting areas will stay away from aligning themselves with controversial proposals.

“The appetite for freshmen Democrats to take on unpopular issues has really declined,” said one lobbyist. “Anything that resembles expanded gambling will be unpopular.”

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Posted on February 3rd, 2010 by hunwut
Filed under: Gaming