Tribe Works Out Gambling Deal : Wagering: Fresno reservation gets temporary use of slot-type machines, which Lungren sought to have seized.

In a setback to Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren’s call for a crackdown on gambling machines on California Indian reservations, a Fresno County tribe has won an agreement from local authorities to allow use of the lucrative devices in its bingo hall for at least eight months.

The agreement between Table Mountain Rancheria and Fresno County sheriff and district attorney, approved last week by a federal judge, calls for a 240-day moratorium on gambling arrests, raids or prosecutions involving the small Indian community.

The unusual arrangement follows a Nov. 3 midnight raid by sheriff’s deputies to seize 93 slot-type gambling machines on the rancheria.

In launching the raid, Fresno County officials were following an Oct. 8 directive by Lungren urging “appropriate action” against what he called illegal gambling on Indian lands. A similar raid in San Diego County on Oct. 30 resulted in confiscation of 288 machines on three reservations.

Replacement machines are being installed at Table Mountain, however, in the wake of a legal counteroffensive by the tribe there, which left local authorities doubting their jurisdiction over Indian gambling.

“I’m frustrated,” said Fresno County’s chief deputy counsel, J. Wesley Merritt, who has “no doubt” the devices are illegal, but feels powerless to prevent their use.

While federal authorities still could raid the tribal casino, they have expressed reluctance to do so before the fledgling National Indian Gaming Commission finalizes its regulations on slot machines--a development that is months away.

Nationally, scores of tribes are trying to expand their gambling toward full-scale casinos, turning Indian gambling into a $1-billion industry.

The Table Mountain tribe, which has 43 adult members, says gambling machines are essential to its struggling bingo hall. Patrons slide in $1 to $20 bills to play video versions of poker, “pull-tabs” and other games.

“It’s a hit with the people,” said tribal Chairman Vern Castro. “That’s where the real money’s made.”

The Indians scored their first victory five days after the raid, when U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger issued a temporary restraining order barring the county’s sheriff and district attorney from taking further action against the casino. Wanger agreed with tribal attorneys that the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act gave federal agencies exclusive jurisdiction to enforce gambling laws on reservations.

Wanger scheduled a full hearing on the issue for Monday, but it was canceled when the county and tribe reached their settlement: The Indians agreed not to seek damages from the county, and the Sheriff’s Department pledged to keep hands off the gambling until July--by which time both sides hope for clarification of the complex laws governing Indian gambling.

“I consider it a substantial victory,” said Howard Dickstein, the tribe’s attorney. “It’s an unusual thing for a federal court to enjoin a state criminal prosecution.”

The Indians are asking a Fresno Municipal judge to order sheriff’s officials to return the 93 seized machines. But they are not waiting for a Dec. 10 hearing to resume the video gambling--30 replacement machines have been shipped in, participants in the case said Friday.

“The (Indians) are going to continue on with the kind of games they have been playing,” Dickstein said. “That’s the whole point of the injunction.”

County officials now believe that they were misled by Lungren’s directive, Merritt said, because it “omitted any discussion” of nationwide controversy over whether the 1988 federal law took away local authority over tribal gambling.

County officials also feel somewhat abandoned, Merritt said, because the attorney general’s office declined to provide a state prosecutor to defend the raid. Lungren’s office instead sent legal briefs to help him prepare a case, Merritt said, and promised that “if our cases go on appeal, they will take a more active role.”

Even more disappointing, Merritt said, has been the response of the feds, whom everyone agrees have jurisdiction over reservation casinos.

“It should be the U.S. attorney” bringing such gambling cases, Merritt said, but “they don’t even return my telephone calls.”

Douglas Hendricks, head of the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, said federal prosecutors are reluctant to pursue such cases until the National Indian Gaming Commission--the panel created by the 1988 law--finalizes its regulations.

“Then we’ll take an action one way or the other,” Hendricks said.

Last month, the Washington-based commission released preliminary guidelines that could pose a considerable roadblock to Indian casinos in states such as California, which ban slot machines. The panel said the tribal businesses can include gambling machines only if they are authorized in “compacts” negotiated with the states.

Ten California tribes, including Table Mountain’s, have petitioned the state for such compacts. The bids are expected to be denied, triggering new legal battles.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Cathy Christian, who is handling the negotiations for California, said state prosecutors believe “we were affirmed” by the ruling that the machines require state approval. “The attorney general’s office will stand by its memorandum” backing the legality of local raids, she said.

Christian said that the out-of-court agreement in Fresno means there was “no decision on the merits” of the jurisdictional dispute, which is being contested in a series of cases around the nation.

One stems from a suit filed by the Sycuan band of Mission Indians challenging the legality of the Oct. 30 raids by San Diego County sheriff’s deputies. The loss of 52 gambling machines is costing Sycuan $4,900 each day, a tribal attorney said.

When Lungren announced his crackdown, slot-type gambling machines were being used on eight reservations in California. In addition to the raids at four of them, the Indians at a fifth reservation--Morongo, west of Palm Springs--have since ousted their outside gambling managers and removed the machines voluntarily.

Law enforcement and tribal officials are closely monitoring the widespread litigation.

“We don’t want to leap into an action . . . that creates a whole bunch of high tensions,” said Capt. Joe Spain of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which polices one of the locations still using gambling machines, the Cabazon Reservation in Indio.