Hearing to Air Complaints on Misuse of Tribes’ Bingo Revenue

Representatives of the U.S. Department of the Interior will hear testimony on problems caused by Indian-sponsored bingo games in California at a hearing Sept. 13 in San Diego, it was announced Thursday.

The hearing was requested by U.S. Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego). High-stakes bingo, which has attracted scores of local players to reservation grounds daily in San Diego County during the last two years, has also attracted a variety of problems, Bates said.

The September hearing, to be chaired by U.S. Rep. Richard Lehman (D-Fresno), will address allegations, mostly from tribal members, that revenue from the unregulated games has been misused, according to Jennifer Goodman, an assistant to Bates.

“We have received many written complaints about bingo problems for more than a year,” Bates said in a telephone interview from Washington. “There have been enough questions raised and enough problems evident that we hope the hearing will help determine the facts and find out the deficiencies.”

The first high-stakes bingo games in California began two years ago as a money-making venture on the Barona Indian Reservation near Lakeside. When those games began, there was hope among many reservation residents that bingo revenue would raise their standard of living. Others said that it would make them less dependent on federal funds.

The money for improvements has not surfaced, according to some at Barona. Roads remain unpaved, unemployment has not decreased significantly and promised programs have not been started, they say.

“We don’t know where the money has gone,” said Ernest Magginni, a member of the Barona tribe. “Since the bingo opened, we have only been able to force $3,000 out of the tribal council to distribute to each of the 153 (voting) members.”

California Deputy Atty. Gen. Rudolf Corona, who has been directing investigations of Indian bingo for three years, said the Barona operation, which bills itself as California’s richest bingo game, has been a multimillion-dollar business. According to the 25-year contract between the tribe and American Amusement Management Inc., a Los Angeles-based firm, 55% of the net proceeds go to the tribe and 45% to American Amusement.

Corona would not identify any specific problems uncovered at the Barona reservation, the Sycuan reservation east of El Cajon or the Rincon reservation in North County. But he said that problems have surfaced at games of several of the 11 tribes throughout the state that have set up high-stakes bingo. He said seven more reservations, all of them in Northern California, will offer the games by the end of the year.

“It is a rare instance where tribes are receiving some money,” Corona said. “And where they have seen money it has gone for personal profit and not used to advance the tribe. . . . Our goal is to stop unregulated Indian gambling.”

Bingo for charitable purposes was legalized by California voters in 1976. A U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in December, 1979, ruled that the Indians’ desire to use bingo income to improve conditions on the reservation are as worthy as the intent of charitable organizations permitted to play bingo. But because the Indian games are under federal jurisdiction, they are not subject to the same auditing and jackpot limit requirements of games held by charities.

Independent auditing of the games by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and various other federal regulators is being sought by Bates and other sponsors of the Indian Gaming Control bill, now before the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

Barona tribal attorney Art Bunce of Escondido said, “There has been a lot of allegations of financial wrongdoing. We hope that the hearing will clear the air.”

Auditing is done by accountants hired by the management companies, Bunce said.

Speaking for the Barona tribal council, Bunce contended that the games have been free of vice. “The tribe has received 55% of the net profit since the opening day,” he said. He declined to disclose the amount involved.

“Bingo has provided a replacement fund for funds drying up from the government,” Bunce said. “Each member of the tribe has received $3,000. The tribe has also spent other money, and some of the money is in a tribal bank account.”

Bunce said that money has gone into establishing five college scholarships, a senior citizens food program and donations to the reservation’s Catholic church.

Bunce also said the gambling operation has reduced Barona unemployment from 70% to 10%.

Bunce disputed statistics issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in January showing that 59% of the 304 Barona Indians were unemployed.

Magginni, 54, leads a group opposing bingo and says he represents half of the tribe, though none of the opposition is on the elected tribal council. He said that the bingo has only disrupted their lives and furthered the decay of the tribe.

“We never needed bingo to help us,” he said. “Bingo has opened up the reservations to outside influence. We are destroying our culture by giving it away bit by bit.”

Barona tribal chairman Joe Welch declined to return repeated telephone calls from The Times.

Bingo hall manager Stewart Siegal said that an average of 1,000 players pack the hall each night, seven days a week. Each pays a minimum of $12 to play 18 games, but the average player spends between $35 and $40. Jackpots range from $500 to $20,000. A Cadillac, worth about $20,000, may also be won each night, he said.

“This is not charity bingo,” Siegal said. “This is high stakes. We are not governed by laws, and we give away a lot of money.”

Siegal said the operation has given away more than $1 million in cash and prizes since it opened in April, 1983. But he declined to disclose the gross revenue. He further declined to reveal the amount that has been given to the tribal council.

According to a certified public accountant’s report obtained by The Times, Barona Bingo revenues totalled nearly $3 million during the games’ first five months. Profits totalled nearly $500,000.

Siegal said, “We have given them 55% from Day One. What the tribe does with the money is not our business.”

Siegal said that attendance at the hall has not declined since the doors first opened.

“We have not been affected by the other bingos,” he said. “Sure, we compete with them. But we have better money. Our facilities are finer. They give away Chevrolets, and we give away Cadillacs.”

“We are here to make money for the management and for the tribe,” Siegal said. “We are here strictly as a means of helping the tribe.”