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California Casino Proponents Shift Focus

SAN PABLO, California – As reported by the Contra Costa Times: "Rich people in the East Bay hills should "keep their patronizing opinions to themselves" and stop denying working-class people jobs to feed their kids and send them to college, Indian casino proponents said Thursday.

"Speaking on the topic of 'Poverty is a moral issue,' they underscored the casino campaign's shift from promises of regional economic benefits to an emphasis on class divisions in the East Bay.

"'People in comfortable circumstances who want to wring their hands about the evils of gambling, people who have theirs ... those people need to take a good look in the mirror,' said David Bernstine, pastor of Richmond's New St. James Missionary Baptist Church.

"…Joining Bernstine were Mayor Joe Gomes; Vice Mayor Genoveva Garcia Calloway, who cast the casino as a matter of 'economic justice;' Nick DeLuca, a spokesman for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, and Leroy Burfict, a housekeeper at Casino San Pablo, currently a cardroom.

"Proponents of the 2,500-slot machine casino that the Lyttons want on the cardroom site say it would create 6,600 jobs and pour as much as $155 million a year into public coffers, to be split among the state's general fund, Caltrans, Contra Costa County and San Pablo.

"Opponents object to the casino for social, economic and quality-of-life reasons, among them that the casino would snarl traffic on Interstate 80 and local streets, and impair access to Doctors Medical Center…"

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