California Says No to Twin Casinos

A side-by-side casino project, proposed by Indian tribes accused of reservation-shopping, was denied by an assembly committee.  The hope of the project was to draw in-route Las Vegas gamblers off of Interstate 15 in Barstow, California. 

It seems the vote by the Assembly Governmental Organizational Committee has destroyed Barstow casino hopes for the Big Lagoon Rancheria of Humboldt County and Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians of San Diego County. 

Non-reservations lands, according to federal law, may not be taken into trust and used for gambling purposes until state and local officials agree to gaming compacts. 

This event is just one of the many Indian gaming compacts negotiated with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and rejected by lawmakers.  The committee even allowed tribes objecting to the compact to speak their arguments during the hearings. 

Negotiators from the Schwarzenegger administration organized the bid for the two casinos just last year.  The deal does not, however, become active until it gains legislative approval. 

Many tribes own remote, difficult to access, reservation land that would make it difficult to draw patrons to a casino.  It is not uncommon for these tribes to seek land way from their reservation for casino purposes.  The proposal issued by Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes would create twin casinos along Interstate 15 in the middle of the Mojave Desert.  The location is plotted at the midway point between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Opposition to the Barstow casino proposals argued that they would be in violation of laws on both state and federal levels. 

Both the San Bernardino County’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Chemehuevi tribe identify Barstow as a location once inhabited by their people.  The committee chairman Jerome Horton (D) tried to persuade the tribes and Governor Schwarzenegger to search for land not connected to another tribes ancestral history.  The assembly heard testimony from both the San Manuel Band and the Chemehuevi. 

Not all perspectives are negatives, especially not from the Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes tribes themselves that tote the Barstow location as their doorway out of poverty.  Leaders of Barstow have also recognized the casino deal as an economic lifeline for the community. 

Schwarzenegger is against the Big Lagoon tribe building on their environmentally sensitive reservation in North California.  The governor’s negotiators also had the state in mind when they organized the unorthodox partnership of Big Lagoon to Los Coyotes and Barstow.  Big Lagoon has a long-standing lawsuit with the state.  Negotiators hoped this deal would put that dispute to rest.  

Defending Governor Schwarzenegger’s actions, spokesperson Darrel Ng said, “ The governor feels that he negotiated compacts that were a benefit to the tribes, the state and local community.  Should the tribes request it he will comply with federal regulations and negotiate with them in good faith and he always has.”

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