Supervisors Say No Dice to Bid for Indian Casino

Ventura County officials have rejected a Nevada gambling corporation’s offer to buy acreage at Channel Islands Harbor, convert the land into an Indian reservation and build a 250-room hotel-casino with slot machines and gaming tables.

The proposal, presented to the Board of Supervisors at a Jan. 23 closed session, received no support partly because supervisors concluded the Las Vegas-style resort would not fit into the laid-back oceanfront community, officials said.

“I don’t care to put an Indian casino, or any type of casino, down at the harbor,” said Supervisor John Flynn, in whose Oxnard-area district the harbor is located. “And I don’t care to know any more about it.”

Three other supervisors--Steve Bennett, Judy Mikels and Frank Schillo--said they also strongly oppose the plan, an outgrowth of Proposition 1A last year. The ballot measure amended the state constitution to allow Indian tribes to operate slot machines and blackjack tables at their reservation casinos.

“This is an attempt to manipulate the system,” Bennett said. “It’s an abuse of the special authority we granted Indian tribes to run gambling casinos. People didn’t vote for that because they wanted big-time casino gambling all over the state.”

The plan by Paragon Gaming of Las Vegas is the third in recent months to advocate building gambling casinos in California cities, instead of on rural reservations.

In December, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown announced he was talking with an Indian tribe about bringing a casino to a former Army base at the foot of the Bay Bridge. A few miles away in the city of San Pablo, a second tribe hopes to buy an old-style card club and convert it into a large casino.

But battles have broken out over each proposal. State and federal laws generally seem stacked against them. And gaming industry experts say plans to expand reservations or create new ones in urban areas create a host of legal and political problems.

“It’s theoretically possible, but it won’t happen [in Oxnard],” said I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School who has worked with governments, the gaming industry and tribes on gambling issues. “It’s like holding a pair of deuces against five other players with full houses in a poker game.”

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Gov. Gray Davis, who helped craft last year’s Indian gaming proposition and would need to sign off on any new urban casino, is not a big supporter of legalized gambling, spokeswoman Hilary McLean said.

“He doesn’t want to see a big expansion of gaming in California, particularly in urban areas,” she said.

In Ventura County, Paragon Gaming quietly brought its plan to county officials in January. But the company has failed to scale its first hurdle--approval by the Board of Supervisors.

The company, a limited partnership headed by Las Vegas gambling executives Diana Bennett and Scott Menke, proposed buying 10 acres at the 110-acre harbor for construction of a 250-room hotel with showrooms, restaurants and shops. The casino would have 2,000 slot machines and 175 gaming tables.

Bennett and Menke could not be reached for comment.

Backers say the project would produce hundreds of permanent jobs and bring to county government $10 million from selling the 10 acres and an annual income beginning at $18 million--10% of gross gaming revenue--and increasing rapidly after that.

But when Harbor Director Lyn Krieger briefed supervisors on the plan last month, they didn’t bite.

Schillo, whose district includes neighboring Port Hueneme, said the casino “doesn’t fit with anything in that area.” He said he met with a Paragon representative, but came away unconvinced the casino plan has a future.

“I think it’s dead,” he said. “I’m certainly not in favor of it. It would be very distracting to its neighbors at the harbor and in the surrounding community.”

Mikels said the casino would clog roads and distract from the family and ocean orientation of the harbor.

“It’s two different communities that you’re mixing,” she said. “I think we’d be creating a monster. . . . Would I like the money? You betcha. But I think it comes at too high of a price.”

Flynn and Mikels both said they had concerns about the problems that sometimes accompany casinos and their 24-hour operations, particularly the potential for crime.

Flynn noted that the Oxnard community furiously opposed a large card-club casino when it was proposed a few years ago.

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That type of response prompted Krieger to put the proposal in an inactive file.

“We get lots of proposals,” she said. “And the first question always is: Is it feasible and does it fit? Well, it doesn’t.”

Backers of the plan say they’re not ready to take no for an answer.

They believe the supervisors will change their minds once they’re fully briefed on the proposal and how its revenue could help community groups and pull the under-performing Oxnard harbor out of its doldrums.

“I would hope they would think about revisiting this proposal. At the moment that’s the best we can hope for,” said Michael Koutnik, owner of the Whale’s Tail restaurant at the harbor. “I’d say after they look at all of the information, there could be more of an educated decision made.”

Koutnik said he lobbied local officials, including Flynn, on behalf of the Paragon project because he thinks the harbor desperately needs it.

“This mandates that we think outside the box,” he said. “Inside the box doesn’t work.”

Koutnik said 70% of the residents of Flynn’s 5th District voted for last year’s Indian gaming proposition.

“And about the families? The highest percentage of people who go to Las Vegas now are families,” he said.

Even if the casino plan were to gain county support, gaming law professor Rose said that would hardly end the problems for Paragon Gaming.

If Paragon is working with an Indian tribe that has an existing reservation, the company would need not only federal approvals but also the consent of Gov. Davis to expand that reservation, he said. And such approvals are extremely rare, he said.

If Paragon is working with a landless tribe--there are at least one dozen out of California’s more than 105 federally recognized tribes--things could be easier, because the governor has no direct veto power, Rose said.

Still, any Nevada-style house would go before Davis because he needs to sign off on the required state-tribe compact before a casino can open.

“The chances of all this happening [in Oxnard] are so slim, I certainly wouldn’t put any money on it,” Rose said.