Acquisition of Casino San Pablo Cardroom
After the community of American Canyon rebuffed the Lyttons' attempts to turn an existing cardroom into a casino, the Lyttons set their sights on the city of San Pablo, home of the Casino San Pablo (CSP) cardroom. Cardrooms are California gambling establishments where the house has no stake in the games. Customers typically pay a fixed amount to the house per hand, regardless of whether they win or lose.
With the assistance of the city of San Pablo and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, the Lyttons lobbied local Congressman George Miller to help turn Casino San Pablo into their reservation. Under the terms of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, only tribes who acquired land prior to 1988 would be eligible to operatore casinos on their land. The Lyttons regained their tribal status in 1991 and were ineligible. Miller added a provision to the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000 that took CSP into federal trust and backdated its acquisition to 1988. When President Clinton signed the bill into law, the Lyttons gained the right to turn the CSP, formerly a low-stakes cardroom, into a full-fledged casino with much more profitable gambling devices and games such as slot machines and blackjack.
Miller's backdating clause, in a section labeled "technical corrections," has been described as "midnight legislation" and "underhanded". Professor Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert from Whittier College, said the bill "bordered on illegal". Others dispute that the language was added inappropriately; a former staffer for U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye described the process as nothing out of the ordinary, saying, "That's the way the republic works".
Read more about this topic: Lytton Band Of Pomo Indians
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