Stop California’s Indian Wars

An amicable solution just might be possible in one of California’s longest running legal battles, the fight involving Las Vegas-style video slot machines on American Indian reservations throughout the state. But it’s only possible if Gov. Pete Wilson and several tribal officials ease up on the trench warfare and negotiate.

The struggle began in the 1980s when the Seminoles of Florida and the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians in California fought for the right to establish legal gambling on their lands. That in part led to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed by Congress in 1988. State officials and soon-to-be governor Pete Wilson contended that the video slots were illegal forms of gambling. The federal gaming act gave tribal officials the right to establish gambling operations, with some requirements and restrictions, so long as the state surrounding their land also had some form of legalized gambling. Congress also established a commission to create clear guidelines for tribal gaming.

Within three years, gambling on American Indian reservations and in the rest of the nation had taken root and flourished in places where it had been taboo for generations. Meanwhile, the federal commission failed to establish a single regulation on tribal lands gambling. Confusion reigned.

California and some other states may have been laggard in regulating non-Indian gambling centers within their boundaries, but Sacramento lost no time in moving against increasingly profitable casino-style slot machines on the reservations. Charges that the slots were illegal because they were banned off the reservations were prosecuted in federal court. Tribal officials counterattacked on a number of grounds. They argued that the casinos have lifted their people out of poverty and noted that discussions on the 1988 regulatory act mentioned the importance of self-sufficiency. Federal prosecutors opted to let the counterattack play itself out legally, and it has. The tribes lost on grounds that California law bars any game based on bets against the house, as opposed to the amounts wagered by participants.

Several Northern California tribal gaming interests have now reached an agreement with federal prosecutors that gives them time to alter their machines to comply with state law. Wilson is said to be displeased. He hasn’t figured out that in fact he has won, and again has a chance to bring the dispute to an end.

Meanwhile, several Southern California tribes have vowed to continue their legal fight and have launched a slick media campaign replete with Hollywood star power. They should take a cue from their northern counterparts, stop using the illegal machines and get in on those negotiations.