Friday, August 19, 2005

Our Efforts Are Being Heard!

Friends,
Our efforts in the Bay Area to curb the rampant abuses seen in urban casinos are being heard around the nation and across our state. This article from LA's City Beat details how effective our efforts have been and what they are similarly facing in Southern California. A great read. But the moral of the story is simple: we must not let up.
SIN CITY
Indian gaming interests are working to create gambling sites in urban areas far from any reservation

To critics of urban gambling, this was almost the attack of the killer casino: a roughly 65,000 square-foot, four-story gambling venue to be located in the congested middle class Bay Area community of San Pablo, directly off the heavily traveled Interstate 80, and down the block from Doctors Hospital, where emergency vehicles already have trouble plowing through traffic. But when the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians rolled out its 500 bingo machines in an expanded San Pablo card club on August 1, it was a far cry from the gambling Mecca of the west, and the 5,000 Vegas-style slots originally negotiated with the governor.

But the San Pablo Casino opening was not entirely without fanfare. It came just days after U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s bill to halt the casino hit the senate floor. It fueled a growing national debate about “reservation shopping” – the process by which tribes can acquire off-reservation gambling sites, sometimes in heavily populated urban areas.

Read the rest of the article from LA City Beat.