By Rob Hotakainen
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Monday, Jul. 9, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 9, 2012 – 6:24 am
WASHINGTON – After buying a chunk of land 50 miles north of San Francisco, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria just broke ground on a new, Las Vegas-style casino. It will be the largest in the Bay Area, with 3,000 slot machines, 200 hotel rooms, a spa, bars, restaurants and parking for more than 5,000 cars.
In New York, the Shinnecock Indian Nation is considering Long Island as a site on which to build the Big Apple’s first tribal casino.
And in Washington state, the Spokane Tribe of Indians wants a new 13-story casino and hotel next to Fairchild Air Force Base, prompting fears that the city will become “Spo-Vegas.”
The plans are extraordinary for one reason: In all three cases, the tribes want to build their palaces on land that’s not part of their original reservations.
The expansions are the latest twist in the nation’s Indian casino wars, and they mark a major shift for the tribes, which already run 385 casinos and bingo halls in 29 states.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for large-scale Indian gambling 25 years ago, tribes have been forced to keep the majority of their casinos on reservation land held in trust by the federal government, usually in remote regions far from public view.
Now, thanks in part to the Obama administration, Indian tribes across the country are ready to bust out, bringing gambling to the same land that was taken from them long ago.
Tribes are seeking to cash in on a loosening of the rules, announced in June 2011 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs junked a Bush-era requirement that a casino had to be within easy driving distance from a tribe’s reservation.
Casino opponents now fear that tribes, with their sovereign status, will have far too much authority to do as they please on their new lands, especially as they press for even less federal control.
In the small desert town of Joshua Tree in Southern California, Victoria Fuller said she worries what might happen if the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians is allowed to open a new, off-reservation casino near the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.
“They could do anything they want,” said Fuller, the president of the Joshua Tree Community Association and a leading opponent of the plan. “They could put a 20-story building with spotlights on it, and we would have no say.”
The new push by the tribes is aimed at reviving a $28 billion-a-year industry hit hard by the recession. After growing at a brisk 14 percent annual rate from 1995 to 2007, gambling revenues have essentially stalled out, increasing by only 1 percent a year.
The tribes’ moves have ignited a debate over how quickly the United States will hit a saturation point with casinos. While polls show broad public support for gambling, some say the tribes are ready to push the envelope.
“It’s just all about the money, and the model is very simple: It’s to get as many slot machines as possible as close to maximum-population areas …” said John Kindt, a gambling researcher and professor of business and legal policy at the University of Illinois. “They’re going to go everywhere.”
The epicenter of the battle is in California, one of six states – along with Washington, Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona and Connecticut – that account for more than two-thirds of all Indian gambling revenue.
The Golden State already has more than 60 Indian casinos, the most in the nation. And when U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill last year that would make it harder for tribes to buy new land for gambling, she said the state could easily have another 50 casinos in coming years if Congress doesn’t stop them.
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“After buying a chunk of land 50 miles north of San Francisco, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria just broke ground on a new, Las Vegas-style casino.”
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT NEIL DERRY IS TRYING TO PREVENT.
James Ramos and his tribe are buying properties in our communities and plan to turn them into casinos, and additional safe havens for the Mexican and Russian mafias, allowing them easier access to sell drugs to our school kids and around our neighborhoods and business.
Anonymous #1:
Have you alerted the authorities as too your latest hallucination?
So they can make billions of dollars more in tax free money?
Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock:
I thought Republican’s were against taxes .
“Tribes put more than 840,000 acres – roughly the equivalent of the state of Rhode Island – into trust from 1998 to 2007, according to information The Associated Press obtained from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act.
The rise in a tribe’s financial fortunes as a result of the major expansion in the size of the reservation can give tribes a MAJOR INFLUENCE on the future development of an area.”
S.O.S.!!
“Land held in trust is essentially FREE from state and local law:
* CANNOT be taxed by a county to pay for public services. (Local governments don’t collect taxes on the property but still provide services such as sewer and water .)
* can free casino income to stimulate development for major projects.
is NOT SUBJECT to the zoning and “land use” LAWS OF TOWNS or even municipal ordinances
When the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in 2005 that non-reservation Oneida Indian Nation land was subject to state and local taxation and regulation, the Oneida Indian Nation sought federal trust status for its land. This resulted in a 2008 decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior to place about 13,000 acres of the Oneidas’ land into trust – 8,800 acres in Oneida County and the rest in Madison County. Although the state, as well as Madison and Oneida counties, filed a federal lawsuit in 2008 to block the Interior Department’s decision in September 2009, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn ruled that placing the land into trust is not unconstitutional.”
Anonymous:
So your saying this business should be taxed and taxed heavily.
TAX?
NO..NOT FAR ENOUGH…
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ABOLISH THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS SYSTEM THROUGHOUT OUR COUNTRY!
What about my 40AC and a mule?
Repairman…..Anon 8’s great granddaddy was all for putting indians on reservations when he heard there was gold in the black hills, now that the Indians have found a way to make gold on the reservations via casinos, anon 8 wants reservations abolished. What a sore loser.
CALLING OUT AN S.O.S … S.O.S … S.O.S … S.O.S…TO SBC!!
“The plans are extraordinary for one reason: In all three cases, the tribes want to build their palaces on land that’s NOT part of their original reservations.”
SO MUCH FOR “CONGRESSMAN” JERRY LEWIS AND HIS SO CALLED “LOVE FOR HIS COUNTRY”
BY ENDORSING JAMES RAMOS, JERRY LEWIS HAS STRUCK A HUGE BLOW TO SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, THE THIRD DISTRICT AND ESPECIALLY TO OUR BELOVED COUNTRY! YET, HE SLEEPS WELL AT NIGHT…WHILE WE LIE AWAKE IF FEAR OF WHAT WILL OCCUR TO OUR COMMUNITIES AND THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTY SHOULD RAMOS SUCCEED…THERE WILL BE BLOOD ON LEWIS’ HANDS!
ALSO, BY LEWIS’ ENDORSEMENT TO RAMOS, HE CONFIRMED PUBLICLY TO ALL WHO HAD SUPPORTED, LOVED AND ADMIRED HIM FOR DECADES, THAT ALL THIS TIME HE WAS A “FRAUD” …
A FRAUD AS A CONGRESSMAN,
A FRAUD AS A REPUBLICAN,
AND ESPECIALLY AS AN HONEST MAN!
BEFORE NOVEMBER, THERE IS TIME FOR LEWIS TO REFLECT, GATHER HIS “THREE WISE MEN” AND ALL FOUR CAN THEN DO RIGHT BY SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, HIS HOMETOWN REDLANDS, AND ESPECIALLY THE THIRD DISTRICT BY WITHDRAWING THEIR SUPPORT FOR A FOOLISH DEMOCRAT AND EX SAN MANUEL CHIEF JAMES RAMOS.
“Casino opponents now fear that tribes, with their sovereign status, will have far too much authority to do as they please on their new lands, especially as they press for even less federal control.”
MAYBE CONGRESSMAN LEWIS CAN GATHER A BRILLIANT “LEGAL TEAM” TO ABOLISH THE RESERVATIONS as their Sovereign “lawless” territories spill over into our communities, businesses and schools
“Casino opponents now fear that tribes, with their sovereign status, will have far too much authority to do as they please on their new lands, especially as they press for even less federal control.”
MAYBE CONGRESSMAN LEWIS CAN GATHER A BRILLIANT “LEGAL TEAM” TO ABOLISH THE RESERVATIONS before their Sovereign “lawless” territories spill over into our communities, businesses and schools…AS PENANCE.
Red Anon, you state that the Indians make gold “on” the reservations so I want them abolished? You are not that stupid, foolish at times, but not stupid.
In fact,Red, you remind me of that joke I posted earlier …“I wondered why the frisbee was getting bigger, and then it hit me.”
THE PROBLEM IS THEY ARE SPILLING THEIR CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES “OFF…OFF…OFF…OFF…OFF” THE RESERVATION. THEY ARE BUYING PROPERTIES and bringing with them malicious intentions and crime into our communities, neighborhoods and schools- infecting our youth and families with their way of life.
They TAKE TAKE TAKE TAKE TAKE from our local, state and federal government while at the same time thumbing their nose and LAUGHING at us knowing our laws can not touch them…
I SAY ENOUGH! YOU SHOULD SAY ENOUGH! CONGRESSMAN JERRY LEWIS SHOULD SAY ENOUGH! OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD SAY ENOUGH! It will only get worse..are we just going to stand there and shake our heads?
AGAIN…THEY ARE MAKING MILLION-BILLIONS- NOT OFF CASINO PROFITS, BUT OFF OF DRUG TRAFFICKING, GUN RUNNING, EXTORTION AND PROVIDING A SAFE HAVEN, FOR “PROFIT”, TO THE MEXICAN AND OTHER CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS
AND OUR BLIND LEADERS ( Jerry Lewis) ARE STANDING THEIR LOOKING AT THE “FRISBEE” GETTING BIGGER!
SPEAKING OF INDIANS…
To Congressman Lewis:
In all sincerity I ask you, and I speak for many…
Lately, when you speak, meet, or run into your fellow republicans, your staff, your family or friends- do you actually believe our greetings to you are polite and affectionate because we respect, love, or admire you?
Perhaps at one time…for decades…that was the case…not anymore.
Now we are silently deeply disgusted and disappointed at your passionate support and endorsement of a foolish man, James Ramos, and at your methodical undermining of Neil Derry, a good and honorable man.
If we are polite, it’s out of obligation or decency ONLY!
IN OUR EYES, NOT YOU, NOR YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS WILL EVER BE SEEN THE SAME.
IN ONE SWOOP, FOR A FOOLISH MAN, YOU, A ONCE GREAT MAN, HAVE DISHONORED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,
YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS, OUR HOMETOWN OF REDLANDS, AND ALL REPUBLICAN ELECTED OFFICIALS THOUGH
OUT OUR COUNTY!
Red Anonymous I think you hit the nail on the head. Judging by the responses of anonymous’s #11 thru 15 he must of been resting his thumb on that same nail head.
Repairman,
you can’t be THAT out of touch!
Anonymous #17:
I’ve read your rants, they were absolutely unbelievable, I’d even say desperate, and I stand by my last comment.
Repairman,
But I AM DESPERATE, you silly fool! They are not rants, they are S.O.S alerts!
I can’t take on the needs of our county or state alone… and Congressman Jerry Lewis has bailed out on us, and our country, and our party!
As Rob Hotakainen’s article indicates…
THERE IS A WHIRLWIND OF ACTIVITY within them Indian reservations, and
the “frisbees” leaving the reservations all over the country are getting BIGGER!
So YES, I’m absolutely desperate to bring NATION WIDE attention to this serious issue, growing ever more grave.
Anonymous :
And you think derry is the one that will save us?
Anonymous :
And you call me out of touch.
Repairman,
I make no predictions about who will “save us” , as you say. I only ask that each help carry their load…and sound the alarms nation wide!
I need to be careful with what you say, I feel you’re trying to trick me or something…in fact, you remind me of the priest in this joke:
An Irish priest and a Rabbi get into a car accident. They both get out of their cars and stumble over to the side of the road. The Rabbi says, “Oy vey! What a wreck!” The priest asks him, “Are you all right, Rabbi?” The Rabbi responds, “Just a little shaken.” The priest pulls a flask of whiskey from his coat and says, “Here, drink some of this it will calm your nerves.” The Rabbi takes the flask and drinks it down and says, “Well, what are we going to tell the police?” “Well,” the priest says, “I don’t know what your aft’ to be tellin’ them. But I’ll be tellin’ them I wasn’t the one drinkin’.”
Take away the indian gambling monopoly and they will dry up and blow away. Why should one group have a business monopoly?