It's a beautiful Sunday evening in December on the edge of Temecula. Malls nearby are packed with customers, and so is a new $262-million gambling casino and resort owned by the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians.
A few years ago, California's Indian casinos were shabby and claustrophobic. But this one wouldn't be out of place on the Las Vegas Strip. Certainly, more than one casino on the strip would happily trade crowds with it--even if certain Vegas-style games, including roulette and craps, aren't allowed on Indian lands in California.
The Pechangas built this the size of a football field. The crowd seems more Laundromat than Las Vegas. Some have kids in tow. Hundreds of people pull the handles of hundreds of slot machines, and others move their heads in a slow circular motion watching the tantalizing ball of a roulette wheel.
Roulette? Wait a minute. Isn't that game specifically forbidden by the state Constitution?
The Pechangas have a ready answer: This game is not "roulette." Well, yes, it does have a roulette wheel and a ball. Yes, the wheel spins, and the ball bounces and lands in a colored, numbered slot. The odds are the same, and the sign above the table says: Roulette.
But the Pechangas say it is not roulette. They say it's a "slot machine," and cite a recent ruling by the National Indian Gaming Commission, two of whose three members are Indians. The commission determined that this roulette is not that roulette because no human being spins the wheel or rolls the ball. Those tasks are performed mechanically. Hence, it is not "roulette." As if ice cream ceases to be ice cream if the crank is turned electrically rather than by hand.
Alarmed by the commission's interpretation, which has led to similar non-"roulette" roulette games on Indian lands around the nation, the attorneys general of 21 states and the Virgin Islands have opposed the interpretation, arguing that it has no foundation in law.
The situation suits the Indians just fine, says Guy Martin, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has represented both tribes and their opponents. "The tribes know that even if they eventually--and I stress eventually--lose these arguments in court, they will have enjoyed years of very rich revenues from these games. So, even if they lose years later, they still win."
