State lawmakers want to halt gaming at Casino San Pablo

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 1, 2006 | by Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

State lawmakers are urging swift passage of a U.S. Senate bill to roll back the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians' gaming rights at the tribe's Casino San Pablo.

A letter sent Wednesday by 13 Assembly and state Senate members to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., voices gratitude and an "urgent need" for her bill, S.113, and urges her to take all efforts to get it passed this year.

"It is our belief that without S.113, the Lytton tribe will expand the existing card room at Casino San Pablo into a massive casino," the lawmakers wrote. "The intrusion of tribal casinos on non-ancestral land, in densely built urban areas, would set a precedent for authorizing urban casinos throughout California."

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, authored the letter, which was signed by others, including state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. Casino San Pablo lies within their districts.

Feinstein's bill has awaited a Senate floor vote since September, when Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., reported it out favorably. Her office could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the bill's prognosis.

"Should S.113 pass, over 500 people who are gainfully employed with full benefits would be unemployed, the Lytton Indian tribe would have the clock turned back on them in a most unfortunate way, and the city of San Pablo would go bankrupt," tribal spokesman Doug Elmets said, noting the city cut residents' utility users tax thanks to revenue from the casino's municipal services agreement.

The tribe has indicated that they are satisfied with the size and scope of the casino as it exists now, and for the signers of this letter to say that the tribe intends to expand this casino into a massive Las Vegas-style casino is absurd, he said.

The Lytton Band and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in August 2004 agreed on a 2,500-slot-machine casino from which the state, county and city would share 25 percent of the revenue. Concerns of traffic, gambling addiction and other possible problems kindled community opposition and the tribe in March 2005 said it would install electronic bingo terminals that look and play much like slot machines, but are permitted without a compact.

Feinstein's bill would bar the Lyttons even from operating those by repealing part of a 2000 amendment by Rep. George Miller, D- Martinez, that "backdated" the land's placement in trust for the tribe so it was deemed to have happened before Oct. 17, 1988 -- the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's effective date, after which gaming on newly acquired land requires rigorous bureaucratic review. Subjecting Casino San Pablo to such review could delay the Lytton Band's gaming plans by years, though the tribe would keep the nine- acre tract.

Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@angnewspapers.com.