By Ron DeLacy
Bee staff writer
(Published: Thursday, October 22, 1998)
JAMESTOWN -- Kathy Strait, a 40-year-old hospital records clerk
from Columbia, said she has never voted before.
"But I'm going to vote this time," she said
between punches of the play button Wednesday on a Chicken
Ranch Rancheria Casino video slot machine, "just because of Proposition
5."
That's the initiative that would amend California law to
allow slot machines in tribal casinos and force the governor
to sign agreements with tribes that want to set up
gambling. If the proposition fails, the slots are out the
door. Casino operators say most of their customers would be
gone, too, and so would most of their employees.
They say Proposition 5 would simply maintain a status
quo -- continuance of gambling operations that have perked up
American Indians' economies over the past decade, provided tens of
thousands of jobs, reduced welfare by $50 million a year
and generated $120 million in state and local taxes.
To opponents, the proposition means unregulated gambling, expanded casino
operations, casinos springing up like wildflowers wherever American Indians want
to plant them.
Opponents complain that the gambling operations don't have to
pay taxes. Proponents counter that the tribes are governments, and
shouldn't have to pay taxes on their gambling operations any
more than the state should pay taxes on its lottery.
It's a complicated issue, but this much is clear:
The Proposition 5 campaign is among the most expensive in
California's history. As of Sept. 30, tribes supporting the measure
had raised $42.7 million, and the opposition -- largely funded
by Nevada casino operations that don't want to lose their
California gamblers -- had raised $15.5 million.
At the Chicken Ranch Casino, the ambience hardly reflects
the apparent megabucks campaign stakes. With its linoleum floors, plastic
chairs, quiet atmosphere and hostesses wandering around offering coffee instead
of booze, this isn't like the glitz of Lake Tahoe
or Las Vegas.
It's more like a warehouse the size of a
football field with bingo tables and slot machines -- mostly
bingo tables. They take up about 80 percent of the
space, and could stay even if Proposition 5 fails.
But the slots make 80 percent of the money
here, operators say, and this has been a healthy enough
operation to vastly improve the lot of one of California's
smallest tribes. The Chicken Ranch Rancheria, with just 10 adult
members, has bought hundreds of acres of surrounding land in
recent years, and tribal administrator Jan Costa said that wouldn't
have been possible without casino profits.
If Proposition 5 fails, she said, about 80 percent
of the casino workers probably will be out of jobs.
That's because the operation could be cut back to state-approved
machines that customers don't understand or "games of skill" like
the ones the casino tried in May, during a 21/2-week
shutdown related to Gov. Wilson's fight with the casinos.
"Nobody wanted to play those skill games," said Fred
Eastep, the casino's tech supervisor. He said the machines require
the player to manually stop the spinning wheels, an operation
more like playing Nintendo than playing a slot. Eastep said
he did his best to encourage people to try them.
"I felt like a barker at a girlie show,"
he said. "I said, 'I'll give you 20 bucks extra
if you line up the bananas on the bottom.' But
most people, especially older people, weren't quick enough to stop
them where they wanted."
"All they did was suck up our money," said
Strait, who visits the casino about once a week with
her 80-year-old mother, Rhoda Carpo.
Carpo said she likes going to the casino weekly,
and enjoys both the gambling and the friendliness of the
other gamblers and the casino staff. But it wasn't like
that when those "Skill Challenge" game were the only machines
available.
"This place was like a morgue," she said.
Carpo added that if gambling operations like this can
help the local Indians improve their financial situations, she's all
for it.
So is Sergio Acedo, a manager for the La
Hacienda chain of Mexican restaurants who lives in Angels Camp
and visits the Chicken Ranch Casino "about once a week,
sometimes twice a week, sometimes twice a day."
"I'm all for it (Proposition 5)," Acedo said. "The
government took land away from the Indians, killed them, tortured
them and doesn't even want to let them better their
lives."
He said he considers opposition to Proposition 5 basically
the work of Nevada casinos afraid of losing a little
business.
"They shouldn't worry about it," he said. "It's like
my mother has always said: The sun shines for everybody."
Mary Lynne Vellinga of the Bee Capitol Bureau contributed
to this report.