Voting No On Amendment To Indian Gaming Compact: Proposition’s 94, 95, 96 & 97

Four of the largest southern California Indian tribes along with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are pushing to amend an existing gaming compact with the state that would allow the expansion of their casinos. This expansion would make them some of the largest casinos in the world.

Out of all the propositions I have read, these required a bit of time to gather my thoughts and figure out which way to vote. As an avid poker junkie and a frequent visitor to these Indian Casinos it would seem obvious to vote yes to let them expand their operations. The trouble is, I am torn between my selfish desire to enjoy Vegas style casinos here in California and what I morally feel is the right thing to do.

In the simplest terms the Casinos are asking to expand their Nevada-style slot machines from 2,000 to 7,500. In exchange more payments would be made to the California General Fund. Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing for this as a way to pay down some of the 11 billion dollar fiscal deficit.

Schwarzenegger stipulates that by voting yes, 9 billion dollars in additional revenues would be collected over the next 20 years that can be used for public safety, local and State Law Enforcement, Senior Citizens, and Education.

Before we get too excited about all these billions of dollars in additional revenue, the state is only really looking at an additional $450 million per year. This equates to 0.3% of the state’s annual budget.

In an attempt to bring myself up to speed on all the issues surrounding this Indian Gaming act I have come across some extremely high emotions.

• There are those who feel Indians deserve to expand their Casino Empire and be allowed to make as much money as they can. It is about time Native Americans have a piece of the pie considering what the white man has done to them. When it comes to what the Native Americans have, no one has a right to complain.
• Then there are some Native Americans who themselves report that the wealth brought in from the Casinos are unfairly distributed to the smaller tribes. It has been reported by some tribe members that they have been expelled from their homes as a way for those with higher percentages of Native American blood can keep more of the distribution for themselves. The words “organized mafia” appears to get mentioned.

I have absolutely no idea if the claims made from Native Americans who have been expelled from their tribes for the sake of monetary gain are accurate, but I personally have been known to say we should give Native Americans anything within reason considering our brutal history with them. (Update: Video 1: Pechanga Membership Battle - Video 2: Tribe-Pechanga Casino Tribal Member Issues)

Anything in reason is how I’ve come to my decision to vote NO on this proposition. Casinos are basically money printing presses. The gambling odds are stacked in their favor over the long term and I see no reason for them to have a monopoly on all casino business here in California.

I’ve read somewhere each slot machine can bring in $130,000 a year after payouts. For purely selfish purposes I want a piece of that action.

Since Indian Gaming is a monopoly, their taxes should be much higher than what we are currently asking. The only competition for real Vegas style gambling in California are the Indian casinos themselves. The least they can do is pay two to three times what normal businesses would have to pay in state taxes.

Another thing that really has bugged me is the way this proposition is being presented to us Californians. Since our state is in fiscal trouble we must vote to allow the casinos to save us. The way I see it, if Indian Gaming can lower the states deficit problems then why don’t we just legalize gambling as a whole and impose a hefty tax which guarantees more money to the General Fund?

There are too many special interests to allow that to happen.

The California lottery was setup as a means to help pay down our deficit and as a way to contribute directly to education. From looking at the current state of our educational system I question how much that has helped.

Lastly, at the end of the day I just do not like slot machines (and the lottery for that matter) since they are nothing more than a senseless activity requiring zero skill. My grandmother used to call them “one arm bandits” as they stood there taking people’s money all day long.

When I was last at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas there was a line to the cashier dedicated to only cashing employment checks. Sadly it was filled with people all the way around the corner. I fear all those new slot machines which the Indian Casinos want to add will attract the same type of low economic people.

If this is the road we must travel then the least we can do is see to it that a large percentage of our resident’s losses in these expanding casinos will come back to the state in the form of a high gaming tax.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.