Casino Gambling Development in Coastal California

The state of California was looking to resolve a protracted legal fight to keep the tiny Big Lagoon Rancheria from building a tribal casino on a pristine coastal lagoon in Humboldt County. The Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, an impoverished San Diego County tribe in harsh, remote mountains unfit for building, wanted a place to develop a gambling resort.

And the city of Barstow, a struggling Mojave Desert town where one-third of its 23,500 residents live on public assistance, was seeking economic salvation. But now a "creative solution" championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to let the two tribes from far reaches of California develop side-by-side casinos and hotels in Barstow is in peril.

The tribes, the city and the governor's representatives are scrambling to keep the plan alive after an Assembly governmental organization committee last week voted to reject the tribal gambling compacts Schwarzenegger negotiated last year for the Barstow development. The deal can't proceed without ultimate approval of the Legislature.

But what Schwarzenegger hailed as an answer that "benefits the tribes, the city and all Californians" may be no match for the protestations, money and clout of some of the state's wealthiest tribes now trying to block the Barstow development.

Powerful Southern California gaming tribes claim the Barstow plan is an egregious case of "reservation shopping" allowing distant tribes to erect casinos on lands with no ancestral ties.

July 5, 2006
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!