California Gets Indian Burned

There was never any doubt that those ads which promised all sorts of good things if we just approved more Indian casino slot machines were just so many smoke signals:

Just a few months ago, images of smiling children, police officers and firefighters filled TV screens and mailboxes across the state, urging voters to support major casino expansions for four Southern California tribes.

Gov. Schwarzenegger and other government officials promised that the tribes would help balance the state's troubled budget with an influx of gambling dollars. The casino riches would help protect state funding for schools, police and fire departments, health care and roads, the tribes and their supporters said.

Voters approved the deals, but recent signs suggest the promises may not pan out. Deals touted as a sure-fire way to help the state weather economic slumps are now struggling themselves.

Some casinos are making less than they did before they expanded. Voters approved a total of 17,000 new slot machines for the tribes, but just a few thousand have been installed. And state officials aren't sure how much of a hit the ailing state budget will take because of the gambling decline.

The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians near Temecula announced last week that it is laying off about 400 workers at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, and employees say numerous other people have been fired from the resort in recent months, including many just last week.

Other Indian casinos report drops in business. The Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa near Banning cut 400 to 500 positions this year through attrition. The Fantasy Springs Resort Hotel & Casino near Indio has had attrition-related job reductions, although General Manager Paul Ryan has attributed the declines to seasonal slowdowns in the hot Coachella Valley.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which runs a popular downtown Palm Springs casino and another one in the Coachella Valley, also has felt the economic downturn's effects, Chairman Richard Milanovich said.

The tribal gambling slump comes as lawmakers try to close a $15 billion-plus shortfall between revenue and spending through June 2009.

But wait. The tribes will come back again in a few years promising more wampum if we just let them add another few thousand machines...and the voters will approve them once again. The voters are suckers for their forked tongues.