Indian Casinos: More Good Than Harm
Once again, the big lie is being trotted out by the anti-1A campaign via ridiculously one-sided articles like “California’s Big Gamble,” by Fred Dickey (Jan. 9). Never mind that hundreds of people are earning a living wage in the Indian casinos, or that the proposed new casinos mainly will be built on land good for nothing else that could earn the tribes decent money, or even that Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe have little or no chance of being hurt economically.
The voters of California are wise to such low tactics as using phony citizens in commercials. But the irony of Dickey’s article being placed next to an advertising supplement for Lake Tahoe shows that no forum is safe from propaganda.
Julie T. Byers
Temple City
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I found it a low blow to pull in the “environmental” element in your reporting on Barona. Has anyone been there, to this rocky, scruffy sagebrush area “given” (I assume) to these Indians? Good for them that they’ve figured out a way to finally make some money on the place.
Louise Shepherd
Laguna Hills
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There is very little evidence to support your statement that there would be “well more than 200” casinos in the state. As your article mentions, many of the 107 federally recognized tribes are too remote or have no land base on which to develop a casino. Furthermore, the odds of a tribe reestablishing itself and then having lands eligible for casino development are about as strong as the odds of winning the lottery. Data from the U.S. Department of the Interior show it to be a long, arduous legal journey that very few tribes have managed.
Also, pols such as Peter Schrag, whom you quote, see only “a power play by a rich interest group,” not the tribes’ fight for control of their own destinies. Why shouldn’t these sovereign nations be allowed to promote their agendas in the same manner as trial lawyers, teacher unions and the ACLU?
Brian Sandoval, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, is worried that no California tribe has contacted his office for help. But tribal governments maintain independent regulatory bodies that control their gaming operations, regulators that function in much the same way as the Nevada commission. If Nevada can maintain its vigilance and objectivity with more than half a billion dollars flowing annually into its coffers from casino operations, why can’t an Indian tribe, whose whole economy may hinge on maintaining sound safeguards?
Citizens all across North America have shown their support for Indian gaming, and it is a right granted to the tribes by the federal govermnent. While by its nature gaming will favor some tribes more than others, it elevates all American Indians toward their goal of self-reliance and independence, which ultimately benefits all Americans.
William J. Palermo
President, Gaming & Resort Development, Inc.
Los Angeles
