California's biggest tribe draws losing hand on Indian gaming

[nosmokes]

And of course the story of why the river is so short of fish these days is whole 'nuther tale of greed and connivance, as is the myriad 'inholdings' that dot the yurok and the other klamath people's reservations. and guess where almost any money making operation or government facility that pays a regular leae fee is located? if you guessed non-native owned inholding you win! and yes, poverty is rampant on every res i've ever seen, but the yurok res is as bad as i've ever seen. and i've never been able to figure out just who the hell the victim is in gambling. yes, if someone becomes addicted that's a problem, but why should that be used to keep people from raising themselves out of poverty? we certainly don't allow it to stop the tobacco barons or alcohol fat cats.-joe
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original-indian country today
California's biggest tribe draws losing hand on Indian gaming

By Aaron C. Davis -- Associated Press

WEITCHPEC, Calif. (AP) - Along California's rugged northwest coast, a freshly paved highway exit marked ''Bald Hills Road'' is, for most, nothing more than the entrance to Lady Bird Johnson Grove and Redwood National Park.

For the Yurok, the state's largest and perhaps poorest American Indian tribe, it's where the road home, and the Yuroks' struggles, begin.

Past the park, Bald Hills quickly narrows to a deadly, one-lane logging path and snakes high into the Pacific coastal range. Around blind corners and frequent cliffs, charred remains of Jeeps and rusted cars litter the ditches of a 40-mile-long washboard welcome mat.

It is a clan the state, if not time itself, has left behind.

For years, the Yurok have asked California lawmakers for permission to operate slot machines to begin making the money they say could help pull the poorest of their 5,000 out of grinding poverty. Their casino would be so remote it would seem few might visit, but the tribe estimates it could bring in more than $1 million a year, as much as doubling its discretionary budget in bad years and allowing the tribe to begin saving money to pave, or at least regularly grade, roads such as Bald Hills.

Here, surrounded by steep hills and stripped redwood forests, hundreds of Yuroks survive dug into the remote, muddy banks of the Klamath River. Most live without electricity or clean running water in clusters of dilapidated trailers supplied after a flood when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

Children still learn in one-room schools. Wood fires warm homes. And a tribe that once thrived off salmon grapples with a river with few fish. The tribe's only jobs come from federal grants, or in helping timber companies take the very trees Yuroks believe to be their own.

The way the Yuroks' gaming efforts have been thwarted for years, both through bureaucratic slip-ups and in the crossfire of larger political feuds in the state Capitol, is the story of a tribe beset by misfortunes as confounding as any in the state.
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complete article here

[Captain Hilts]

1. Vegas has lobbied hard to keep them out of the game. nt

[pitohui]

5. article says it's the bigger nations who lobbied to keep them out of the game

they were too slow out of the gate, as per the article:

Many tribes have become so rich from megacasinos erected from Palm Springs to the Sacramento suburbs that the disparity between them and those such as the Yurok is now staggering. Nearly 50 tribes raked in a combined $13 billion from gaming in 2004, according to the California Attorney General's office, and their casino profits continue to rise.

Widening the economic gap between the tribes, rich ones also spend tens of millions on political contributions in the state capital supporting laws limiting competition and increasing their profits. Sometimes that means big-game tribes work to subvert small tribes' efforts to get into the business.

vegas shouldn't have a problem w. california gaming, it's recruitment for them really, since in the end all gamblers go to vegas

[sweetheart]

2. The new gaming is replacing the old gaming

If they opened one of these 'new' gaming casinos:,

(pelican bay supermax prison in california)

then they could prey on people's misfortune, reducing people to slaves,
ensuring they are tortured and screwed.... its the white man's game,
and its the only one that's legal

[pitohui]

3. you are mistaken, there is plenty of legal gaming in california

they are famous the world over for their card rooms and many tribes do have full casino gaming, for instance, hell, even as we speak, i'm wearing a bathrobe given to me by a host at barona in san diego county -- and that was far from the only goody we were treated to when we were invited to play there -- it's a full service casino w. all the trimmings

hey read the article, it say --

Many tribes have become so rich from megacasinos erected from Palm Springs to the Sacramento suburbs that the disparity between them and those such as the Yurok is now staggering. Nearly 50 tribes raked in a combined $13 billion from gaming in 2004, according to the California Attorney General's office, and their casino profits continue to rise.

i don't know why this tribe in the story can't get approval because there's tons of legal gaming in california, just tons, sounds like they are not very well organized and now the big tribes are lobbying against them because they don't care to share a slice of a very large california gaming pie

[sweetheart]

4. good, they should stay out of prison-gaming

The evil prison state is on its own... they're too busy making money... good for them. :-)