SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans Friday that could allow two Indian tribes to open Las Vegas-style casinos in Barstow, far from their aboriginal land -- to the dismay of other tribes with gambling operations.
Under the tentative deals, the Big Lagoon band, from far Northern California, and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians of San Diego County would be able to open separate casinos, each with 2,250 slot machines. The city has encouraged the development as a way to boost its economy.
Schwarzenegger administration officials want to permit the Big Lagoon band to open a casino about 600 miles away from its rancheria, rather than have the tribe open a gambling palace on environmentally sensitive coastal land not far from state parks and in Humboldt County.
Southern California tribes with casinos were among those critical of the proposal.
"It is reservation shopping at its worst," said Deron Marquez, chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which owns a large casino just outside the San Bernardino city limits.
If the two bands install as many slots as allowed under the proposal, they will own casinos among the largest in the country. In exchange, the tribes would pay as much as 25% of the profits from slot machines and card games to the state -- an amount that could result in payments of between $23 million and $31 million a year. They also would provide payments to tribes that have no casinos.
The state began negotiating with Los Coyotes in part because the city of Barstow had struck a deal with the band to open a casino last year. At the state's insistence, Los Coyotes agreed to allow Big Lagoon Rancheria to open a casino on the same site.
In a statement, Schwarzenegger called the agreements "a creative solution for avoiding the construction of a casino on California's coast and alongside a state ecological preserve, while respecting the tribes' federal right to engage in gaming."
Kevin Siva, project manager for Los Coyotes and a member of the tribe's governing council, hailed the compact, but said the tribes have several more hurdles, including winning federal approval to turn the land into reservation property and gaining state legislative approval.
He said Los Coyotes' reservation covers 27,000 acres, is rugged and generally inaccessible, and could not have attracted enough customers because of its remote location. Representatives of Big Lagoon could not be reached for comment.
