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California Senator Pushes for Unlimited Tribal Gaming

SACRAMENTO, California – As reported by the L.A. Times: "A state senator who has received $1.3 million in campaign money from Indian tribes that own casinos is using his position to promote a ballot initiative that would permit unlimited expansion of tribal gambling.

"Using his legislative stationery, Sen. Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) has written to 2 million Californians, urging that they sign a petition to place the initiative on the November ballot.

"The message promises that the initiative would require that tribes pay 'their fair share' of gambling profits to the state, and would protect voters' towns from 'Las Vegas-style gambling' because it would 'ban new casinos which are not on Indian reservations.'

"Current state and federal laws restrict Nevada-style gambling to tribal lands. But a competing initiative proposed for November would break tribes' monopoly on Las Vegas-style betting by authorizing 30,000 slot machines at five horse tracks and 11 card rooms, mostly in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.

"…The Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians, owner of two large casinos in the Palm Springs area, is sponsoring the initiative that Battin is touting.

"…The proposed initiative would grant tribes a 99-year compact guaranteeing them the right to expand their casinos as they see fit on Indian land. In exchange, tribes would pay the equivalent of the corporate profits tax rate to the state — 8.84% of net profits…"

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