Barona Tribe Tests New Lottery-Style Slot Machines

The Barona Indian band has become the first tribe in Southern California to test new lottery-style slot machines, designed to meet the terms of both Gov. Pete Wilson’s gambling compact with the Pala Indians and Proposition 5.

The eight new machines, called Stars and Stripes, are at the eastern San Diego County casino on a 30-day trial basis.

“This is the first in a series of field tests the Barona tribe plans on conducting for the new machine in order to properly evaluate our customers’ acceptance of the new video technology,” Barona Chairman Clifford LaChappa said Friday. “The true test will be customer response.”

A handful of Northern California tribes have been testing the prototype since October, but Barona is the first to do so in Southern California.

The test machines are on loan from the creator, Reno-based Sierra Design Group.

“The new video gaming machines operate under lottery principles, with each player competing for outcomes from a central computer,” said Bob Luciano, president of the design group.

Although the new games operate much like slot machines, the technology is actually more like the state lottery games, Luciano said. With lottery-style games, players vie for predetermined prizes. With conventional slot machines, payouts are more random.

Barona and nine other gaming tribes signed agreements similar to the Pala Indian compact last summer. Those compacts require the tribes to replace video slot machines with lottery-style devices as they become available in mass production.

However, if Proposition 5, passed by voters last month, is upheld in a case pending before the California Supreme Court, Barona and other California tribes would not have to make the switch and could keep their video slots.