April 28, 2008

Schwarzenegger again offers casinos as eco solution

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who three years ago vowed to save a pristine lagoon in Northern California by trying to locate Indian casinos in Barstow, is again promoting gambling development in the name of protecting nature.

This time the potential beneficiaries are the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and the Wiyot Tribe. Under new compacts signed by the governor, they are being promised revenues from a casino resort destined for a prime freeway location near Highway 99 in Madera County.

Schwarzenegger announced today he has signed gambling compacts allowing construction of a 280,000 square foot gambling facility for 2,000 slot machines - and an option to add 2,000 more. The catch is that the governor is requiring the 600-member Wiyot Tribe to give up its right to build a casino on tribal lands near the ecologically sensitive Humboldt Bay and Eel River Estuary.

The governor said the agreement would also keep the 1,700-member North Fork Rancheria from putting a gambling facility in remote Sierra foothills near the Sierra National Forest.

"These compacts are a model for protecting the environment and balancing the needs of the tribes and local communities," Schwarzenegger said in a statement today.

The casino project, which would share revenues between the two tribes, would pay the state a 13.5 percent to 22 percent of slot machine and card game revenues. The plan reflects Schwarzenegger's pledge to look to increase state revenues through a continued expansion of tribal gambling.

But the Madera County casino plan - allowing an off-reservation casino development - comes after Schwarzenegger failed to win approval in the Legislature to allow two other tribes to build side by side casinos in the Mojave desert city of Barstow.

The Barstow plan was intended to settle a lawsuit against the state and keep a north coast tribe - the Big Lagoon Rancheria - from building a casino near state parks and an ecologically sensitive lagoon.

The North Fork and Wiyot tribes still must win federal approval to take land into trust for the proposed casino. In signing the compacts, Schwarzenegger agreed not to submit them to the Legislature until the U.S. Secretary of Interior approves the land transfer.

Posted by Peter S. Hecht on April 28, 2008 10:56 AM