The Prop. 5 road show debuted Wednesday in Las Vegas, where the topic of Indian gaming is drawing unprecedented notice at the world's largest conference on the gambling industry.
This time, familiar faces debated how California's Indian gaming initiative could affect Nevada, where casinos are financing opposition to Prop. 5.
Discussion of the initiative was one of more than a dozen seminars scheduled this week on the issue of Indian gambling at the 12th annual World Gaming Congress and Expo in Las Vegas.
Howard Dickstein, a tribal attorney who opposes Prop. 5, said the measure will hurt Nevada in the long run because it legalizes slot machines. If that happens, California's race tracks and card clubs will push the legislature to be allowed to operate slot machines as well, Dickstein said.
If so, Nevada casinos would suffer more as more Californians stay home to gamble, Dickstein said. California Indian gaming would suffer too because most tribal casinos are in remote areas and could not compete against urban race tracks and card clubs filled with slot machines, he said.
"Nevada can live with Indian gaming," Dickstein said. "It's another thing to have it expand off the reservations."
The Sacramento attorney represents five of 11 tribes that have signed pacts with Gov. Wilson. The pact allow the tribes to continue their monopoly on casino gambling. Under state and federal law, only those tribes which gaming pacts and the California lottery would be allowed to have the devices, Dickstein said.
Under those gambling pacts, tribes must replace video slots with a gaming machine deemed legal under state law. That machine will be unveiled sometime next week in Sacramento and tested in casinos for the first time in October, Dickstein said.
Mark Nichols, chief executive officer for the Cabazon Indians in Indio, noted that despite Dickstein's comments, the vast majority of California tribes support Prop. 5. A variety of polls also show consistent support among California voters, he said.
The coalition of more than 80 tribes behind Prop. 5 believes Nevada has created a worldwide gambling destination that no longer needs Southern California gamblers to survive, Nichols said. "We believe the money ought to be staying in California."
Prop. 5 supporters also resent the rival gambling deal endorsed by Wilson because it imposes conditions many tribes don't like. For example, tribes, as sovereign governments, do not want a deal that forces them to negotiate with unions, Nichols said. Tribes want to make their own choice, and some are negotiating with labor groups, he said.
I. Nelson Rose, a gaming expert and professor at Whittier Law School in Fullerton, predicted campaign spending in Prop. 5 could hit $100 million before election day Nov. 3, making it the most expensive initiative campaign in California history.
The gaming expo has placed greater emphasis than ever before on Indian gambling, said Matt Connor, spokesman for International Gaming Wagering Business magazine, a co-sponsor of the event. The attention reflects the growing acceptance of Indian gaming as an important part of gambling industry, he said.
Convention officials have noticed more tribal members attending from across the country than ever before, though exact numbers were not immediately available. They included tribal leaders from the San Manuel Indians in Highland, the Pechanga Indians near Temecula and the Agua Caliente Indians in Palm Springs.
Various seminars are focusing on Indian gaming issues in Washington, D.C., tribal sovereignty, regulation, training, security, criminal investigations and cultural issues that affect tribal gaming.
The gaming expo, which runs through Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is expected to draw more than 700 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors from around the world.
Published 9/24/1998