Battin bill would double the number of slots in the state

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
It could hurt Schwarzenegger's efforts to collect more revenue from tribes | Wednesday, February 27, 2008 11:50 PM PST ∞

Just more than a week after California voters approved the largest casino expansion since the industry was legalized, a Riverside County state senator introduced a bill that would double the number of slot machines Indian tribes may install.

The bill written by state Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, figures to face some strong opposition because it would allow California's tribes, including some in North County, to add the lucrative slot machines without having to renegotiate their agreements with the state.

That would undercut Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to get more money from casinos, one of the governor's key selling points for the four compacts voters approved Feb. 5.

Battin's proposal, Senate Bill 1201, would expand the number of machine licenses statewide from 60,000 to 122,000. That would help tribes such as Rincon and San Pasqual in Valley Center, who want more machines, but the state says there are no more available.

The agreements, negotiated under Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, allow each tribe to operate up to 2,000 slot machines. But the vaguely worded documents included a statewide cap on the number of machines, a cap that some interpreted to be as low as 45,000 and others as high as 113,000.

The state agency in charge of regulating tribal gambling locked the figure at about 60,000 in 2002. That left many tribes short of the 2,000 limit, including those that were either too slow to ask for the maximum or who did not have the facilities ready to operate that many slots.

Mark Reeder, a spokesman for Battin, said the senator wants to help those tribes.

"It's pretty straightforward," Reeder said of the bill. "Tribes were promised 2,000 machines and some of them can't get them. He wants to enlarge the pool."

Battin's district includes Menifee, Sun City, Winchester, Canyon Lake and Lake Elsinore. His district also includes two of the four big-casino tribes whose compacts were approved by voters Feb. 5: the Agua Caliente Band of Indians in Palm Springs, who can now have up to 5,000 slot machines, and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Cabazon, whose ratified compact authorizes up to 7,500 slot machines.

Battin's district also includes the Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians, whose casino could benefit from his latest bill.

Battin is one of the Legislature's top recipients of campaign contributions from Indian tribes and one of their foremost champions in Sacramento. He has sponsored several bills benefiting tribes, including a 2006 law that sought to protect state funds designated for poor nongambling tribes from being spent elsewhere.

His new bill could run into significant opposition, including from the governor, who has made it clear he wants more money from tribes to bridge the state's multibillion-dollar budget gap.

Schwarzenegger has used the license cap and the tribes' desire for more machines as leverage to bring them back to the negotiating table.

Campaigning in favor of the four new agreements he negotiated with four Southern California tribes, including Agua Caliente and Pechanga, Schwarzenegger said they would bring in $9 billion in revenue for the state over the next two decades.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sabrina Lockhart said Tuesday that the governor has not taken a position on Battin's bill.

A coalition of other tribes, a horse track owner and a casino workers union sponsored four ballot measures to repeal the deals.

Cheryl Schmit, director of the gambling watchdog group Stand Up for California, said the bill would cost the governor his leverage at a time when he would like to renegotiate more agreements.

Schmit was a consultant for the campaign opposing the four agreements on the ballot.

Schmit said that the Legislature cannot change the terms of the compact, as Battin's bill would do. It is up to the tribes and the governor to negotiate the agreements, and the Legislature can only approve or veto the deals, she said.

Professor I. Nelson Rose, who specializes in gambling law at Whittier Law School, said there are about a dozen tribes that could "really take advantage" if the bill is approved.

However, Rose said the bill has little chance of passing because it does not require tribes to pay more money beyond what is agreed in their existing compacts.

"If it's not going to give any more money to the state, then the question is, why do it?" Rose said.

If the bill were approved, it would appear to benefit dozens of tribes, some of whom have said they are eager to expand their casinos.

There are 61 tribes that negotiated agreements in 1999 under then-Gov. Davis. Fifty-eight tribes have casinos, with about 60,000 slot machines on their gambling floors combined.

Only about a dozen tribes have 2,000 slot machines or more, according the California Gambling Control Commission, the state agency that regulates the casinos.

In order to avoid the limits on slot machines, several local tribes have already signed new deals, including Pala and Pauma in North County and Pechanga near Temecula. Each had to agree to pay a larger share of their revenues to the state.

On the other hand, Rincon, which has 1,599 slot machines, is suing the governor to get more licenses. Officials with the tribe say that the fees the governor is seeking in exchange for the licenses amount to an illegal tax on tribal governments.

Scott Crowell, an attorney for Rincon, said Battin's bill is a "good idea."

"It is simply because of a contrived and illegal interpretation of the compact that tribes like Rincon cannot develop to include 2,000 machines," Crowell said.

Battin's bill, which was introduced Feb. 13, is expected to be heard in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee next month, Reeder said.

-- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.