Agua Caliente could build off-reservation gaming sites.
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Chairman Jeff Grubbe and California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a compact this week that, if ratified by the Legislature, could allow it to build gaming facilities on land that isn't part of the reservation.
This agreement would replace the compact that the tribe and the state signed in 1999.
That document, including its 2006 amendment, allowed the Agua Caliente to operate up to three gaming facilities with a total of 5,000 devices in total — including slot machines and skill-based video games, like video poker — with gaming revenues taxed at variable rates, up to 13 percent.
The new compact allows the tribe up to six gaming facilities with a total of 5,000 machines. They currently have two large casinos, so those four potential new facilities would be limited to 500 machines each. It also gives the tribe power to open gaming facilities off the reservation — on land in Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and unincorporated parts of the county that lies between the squares of the tribe's checkerboard-shaped reservation.
The tribe would have to acquire land off the reservation in order to build casinos there — or, more specifically, the U.S. would have to purchase those properties and hold them in trust for the tribe's use.
The compact states that, "The Tribe's unique 'checker-board' reservation has limited the Tribe's ability to fully develop its Gaming Operations and the State recognizes that the Tribe and the surrounding local communities will benefit from economic development and accompanying job creation if the Tribe is able to develop Gaming Facilities on certain parcels of land that are contiguous to the Tribe’s current reservation boundaries."
Tribes in California can acquire land for the purpose of building a gaming facility, provided the transaction is approved by both the Department of the Interior and the governor of California concurs, according to Stand Up California, an advocacy group that pushes for enforcement of gambling laws.
In the last decade, the governor's office has generally supported tribes acquiring off-reservation land for gaming, provided that land isn't in an "urbanized area" and the tribe can demonstrate support from the surrounding community. But communities aren't always supportive — voters blocked two controversial off-reservation casinos in northern California in 2014, despite Gov. Brown's approval.
In a press release, the governor's office said that for the Agua Caliente and their checkerboard-shaped reservation, off-reservation gambling "creates a framework within which the tribe can make significant investments that will generate jobs and stimulate additional economic growth in each of those communities."
~http://www.desertsun.com/story/money/business/2016/08/04/agua-caliente -california-gaming-compact/88226654/ ~
Artist/Author: Jeff Grubbe August 23, 2016 | |
