Artist's rendering of the proposed North Fork Rancheria casino. Image from North Fork Casino Environmental Impact Statement
Columnist Timm Herdt notes that the outcome of Proposition 48 won't stop the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians from opening an off-reservation casino in California:
The fact is that Indian gaming is an activity regulated principally by the federal government, the same government that long ago banished Native American tribes from their ancestral lands and shunted them off to reservations. The federal 1988 Indian Gaming Regulation Act, in a nod to the states, allowed states to negotiate with tribes over certain conditions governing casinos with Class III gaming -- which basically means casinos with Las Vegas-style slot machines. There is no such requirement for casinos with Class II gaming devices -- machines that are patterned off the concept of a bingo game. Today's Class II machines resemble bingo in the same way that a Revolutionary War-era musket resembles a modern surface-to-air missile. Both have the same basic function of launching projectiles, but technological advances have obliterated any other similarities. A Class II device looks like a slot machine, feels like a slot machine and acts like a slot machine. It draws the equivalent of bingo numbers at the speed of light, interconnects thousands of players, and features the equivalent of spinning, flashing, mesmerizing bingo cards that are dead ringers for slot machines. In fact, the cashless Class II machines with high-tech electronics and eye-catching graphics became so appealing that the casino industry was forced to shift to a new generation of slot machines to match their appeal and efficiency.Get the Story:
Timm Herdt: What Prop. 48 will and won't decide (The Ventura County Star 10/23) Another Opinion:
Jon Fleischman: Beyond the Propaganda: How I'm Voting on California Propositions (Breitbart 10/23) California Court of Appeal Decision:
Picayune Rancheria v. Brown (September 24, 2014) Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents:
Press Release | Fact Sheet: North Fork Rancheria Decision | Section 20 Determination: North Fork Rancheria
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