"When California Indian tribes were impoverished and virtually invisible, politicians could ignore them.

When the tribes gained the exclusive right to operate gambling casinos, however, politicians were drawn to them like flies to flypaper -- a relationship sweetened with many millions of dollars in campaign checks.

Mostly, the tribes wanted to bolster their monopoly on full-scale gambling, especially all-important slot machines, which are essentially licenses to print money. But once they had their monopoly, the tribes began to flex their political muscle to seek broader political and legal recognition, an effort that revolves about their somewhat murky status.

Essentially, the casino-owning tribes are governments that operate like private businesses, thus breaching the wall that has traditionally and properly separated the two. In effect, the tribes are governments when it suits them, and businesses when it suits them."

Get the Story:
Dan Walters: A slippery slope: Are tribes governments or businesses? (The Sacramento Bee 8/15)
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