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Counties Left Out of California Casino Deals

JACKSON, California – As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle: "Before he became a powerful man, before much here revolved around slot machines, the life of Bo Marks was mainly about bricks.

"'I ran the machine that made the bricks,' Marks, the 50-year-old tribal vice chairman of the Jackson Band of Mi-Wuk Indians, said on a recent morning, recalling the job he held just a few years ago in Sacramento.

"When his sister, tribal Chairwoman Margaret Dalton, moved their 50-member tribe toward opening the Jackson Rancheria Casino a few years ago, Marks returned to land where he had grown up in a trailer crowded with other children. Now he supervises 1,600 people, making the tribe Amador County's largest employer.

"…Just as Marks' life has been transformed, so has the county -- its power structure, resources and rhythms. The casino brought jobs that had left when a lumber mill closed, but it also has added traffic, saddled the district attorney with a spike in low-level drug cases and strained other county services.

"Yet when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announces pending revisions to deals on Indian gaming in California, they won't have much relevance in Amador. Like many tribal leaders, Marks and his family didn't opt to reopen the 20-year compact they signed with Gov. Gray Davis in 1999.

"The revised compacts -- which at least four tribes are negotiating -- are likely to give more money to the state, more gaming rights to a few tribes and perhaps a strengthened hand for some municipalities dealing with casino growth. But officials here note they'll still be stuck with old deals that leave them politely requesting money from Marks, and feeling thankful he's a nice guy.

"…In the original deals that gave gaming rights to 61 tribes, 'the state took care of their needs and basically sold local government down the river,' said Amador County Undersheriff Karl Knobelauch.

"…From the start, local governments were never supposed to be so wholly dependent on tribal largesse.

"…Lacking clout and money, county officials have long been left to improvise. According to the association of counties, only 18 of the 34 counties where casinos are either operating or are proposed have some type of county-tribal agreement that spells out how impacts will be remedied -- and only six of those are comprehensive…"

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