California, Tribe Reach Pact on Slot Machines

Ending a long stalemate, Gov. Pete Wilson said Friday he has forged a gaming pact with one band of Native Americans that could bring state regulation to Indian gambling in California for the first time.

The agreement, for which at least six tribes have suggested initial support, could be a model statewide and do what the governor has long advocated: remove thousands of slot machines from reservations.

In return for removing the slots, tribes could introduce other kinds of gaming machines; all other gambling allowed on reservations, such as card games, could continue.

“As you are all aware,” Wilson said at a Capitol news conference, “I have not been an advocate of legalized gambling anywhere.”

Nevertheless, he said, since federal law required the negotiations--which lasted 17 months--”we are here today able to announce that we have finalized a compact” with the Pala band of Mission Indians of San Diego County, which currently does not have gaming.

Terms of the compact, which is similar to a treaty between nations, would give tribes operating slot machines 60 days to either remove them or adopt the agreement. Wilson and federal prosecutors said that California’s dozens of tribal casinos would otherwise face federal action to remove the machines.

Gaming tribes that depend on slot machine revenue for the bulk of their income have long protested attempts to remove or force alterations of their machines.

Wilson has maintained that the slots violate state laws banning Nevada casino-style gambling in which players bet against the “house.” The tribes in numerous court battles have maintained that their slot machines are legal on their sovereign lands and that state law does not apply.

On Friday, it was clear that many tribes were ready to continue the fight.

“It’s a sad day for all the tribes who were not at the negotiation table. We had no control” over the negotiations that led to the pact, said Daniel Tucker, chairman of the California Nevada Indian Gaming Assn., representing 39 tribes.

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Joining the protest was state Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), who has defended Indian gaming as a source of revenue for the tribes. The compact is “a sham,” Polanco said, and “will ultimately fail because Gov. Wilson failed to negotiate with all the tribes.”

Paul L. Seave, the U.S. attorney based in Sacramento, said in a letter to the state attorney general’s office Friday that the U.S. Justice Department has told the gaming tribes they risk “enforcement action” if they do not comply with the Pala compact within the two-month period.

Gaming tribes said earlier that they would use a variety of methods to oppose the compact, including legal action and a proposal by some tribes to pursue a November ballot initiative aimed at legalizing slot machines.

Howard Dickstein, a lawyer who represented the Pala band in negotiations with the state’s lawyers, said at least six tribes have indicated that they will sign onto the Pala compact. He said he expects more to follow.

Furthermore, he said that the pact contains numerous advantages for all 100 Indian tribes in California and that when the details become known, other tribes may drop their opposition.

The compact is “a truly historic document that we hope will serve as a turning point in tribal-state relations,” said Robert Smith, chairman of the 835-member Pala band.

Although conventional slot machines will be outlawed, as well as other forms of Nevada-style wagering such as craps, the pact calls for providing the Pala tribe “with a gaming system that is viable, competitive . . . [and] technologically feasible,” Dickstein said. A new gaming device is under development, he said, that meets California’s legal requirements.

He described the device as a machine on which players bet on numbers and watch a screen to see if they win. The devices are in development and are expected to be available to tribal casinos in six to seven months.

Other features of the pact include:

* Placing a statewide limit of 19,900 on the new gaming machines--allowing enough so that each of the state’s 100 federally recognized tribes could open a casino. A tribe not interested in gambling could license its quota to another tribe--and earn up to $1 million a year by doing so, Wilson officials said.

* Employees of tribal casinos in California would fall under the protection of state worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance laws. Some workers also would be granted collective bargaining rights to form unions, though they could not strike.

* Local communities--now mostly barred from exercising authority on sovereign tribal lands--would be given a voice in protecting the environment and would have a right to claim compensation for local police services related to the casinos.

* Patrons would receive added protection against injury and property damage on casino property through expanded liability insurance. They also would be able to appeal to arbitrators if the casino refused to pay gambling winnings.

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Dickstein said there would be no state tax on casinos operating under the compact, unlike arrangements in many other states that allow Indian gaming.

“What is unusual in this compact is that because of what Gov. Wilson said about this administration’s attitude about gambling in general, the state was not in a position and did not request any revenue sharing,” Dickstein said.

Georgia Kimble, chairwoman of the Sycuan band of Mission Indians in San Diego County, one of the state’s largest operators of Indian gambling, protested the compact.

“We don’t want to have to choose between a cookie-cutter compact negotiated in secret or financial devastation by having all the [slot] machines removed,” she said.

Richard Ramirez, vice chairman of the San Manuel band of Mission Indians of San Bernardino County, said copies of the compact were not made available to him, but from what he understood from other sources, “I think it is going to be devastating for the [gaming] tribes in California.”

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Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this report.