Absences Mar Hearing on Indian Casinos : Gambling: Justice Department officials fail to show up before House Interior Committee. Critics say it shows a lack of willingness by U.S. to confront the issue.

The House Interior Committee held a hearing Thursday to explore corruption and other law enforcement concerns about high-stakes gambling on Indian reservations, but the nation’s chief enforcer of gaming activities failed to show up.

The absence of U.S. Justice Department officials, which Chairman George Miller (D-Martinez) called “unfortunate,” left more questions than answers after five hours of testimony.

Under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Indian tribes are granted broad powers to conduct gambling activities that are legal in their home states. In the last year, however, dozens of tribal casinos have been expanded to include video gaming machines in states, such as California, where the lucrative devices are illegal.

Several state authorities said Thursday that the Justice Department has shown little enthusiasm for investigating the $1-billion-a-year industry.

The Justice Department’s reluctance to get involved and ambiguities in the federal law have created “a considerable amount of confusion” over how to enforce the federal Indian gambling statutes, said California Deputy Atty. Gen. Cathy Christian.

The burgeoning use of the gaming machines in Indian casinos has prompted increasing calls for the Justice Department to take action. Fresno County’s chief deputy counsel, J. Wesley Merritt, complained in a recent interview that “federal authorities will not mess with this stuff. . . . They won’t even return my phone calls.”

Justice Department spokesman Doug Tillett said federal prosecutors have initiated at least four cases in the last 18 months in New York, Oklahoma, Montana and Northern California. “The U.S. attorneys do closely monitor Indian casinos,” Tillett said. “I think we are doing a reasonable and responsible job of addressing the problem where we find it.”

The department did not send anyone to the hearing because officials were not notified until Christmas Eve, Tillett said. He said Justice Department officials “would be happy to come up and brief (the committee) later on what enforcement action we have had.”

Miller said he is determined to get Justice Department officials to attend a hearing soon. “It is a very serious issue,” said Dan Weiss, a Miller spokesman. “People need to be moving on it.”

California authorities are very concerned about reports of organized crime infiltrating the Indian casinos, Christian said. “When we see figures associated with organized crime have association with Indian gambling facilities, it leads to questions about what steps California authorities can take.”

Indian leaders representing the 173 tribes that conduct bingo and casino gaming operations labeled charges of criminal activity as racist and unproved.

“We feel these allegations, arising from groups such as the horse- and dog-racing associations and the casino resort owners, are perpetrating a fraud on the American people and are only a thinly disguised attempt to protect their own commercial interests,” said Leonard Prescott, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Assn.

The National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal agency created by the 1988 law, has mostly found cases of “disorganized crime” in Indian gambling halls, Chairman Anthony J. Hope said. The commission did not release its proposed regulations defining the scope of permitted gaming activity until three years after the law was passed.

Hope, who heads a three-member panel that was not fully in place until April, said he expects the commission to begin issuing ordinances this summer.

California is one of a handful of states where local law enforcement agencies are empowered to police Indian land. But two federal judges recently issued tentative rulings that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act placed one crime--illegal gambling--under exclusive federal jurisdiction.

Indian representatives said it would be “an outrage” if the Justice Department initiated criminal action against Indian tribes.

Times staff writer Paul Lieberman in Los Angeles contributed to this article.