Gavin Newsom goes all in on tribal casino deal and California cashes out empty-handed
Gov.Gavin Newsom has signed away California’s share of future tribal casino revenue in a new 25-year gaming compact with the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe — a move critics have blasted as a giveaway.
The agreement, which was signed Monday, authorizes the tribe to operate up to two casinos with as many as 1,200 slot machines and other Las Vegas-style games on eligible trust land in San Bernardino County.Unlike the tribe’s previous gaming compact, however, the new deal no longer requires Fort Mojave to share a percentage of casino revenue with California. Instead, the tribe will primarily reimburse the state’s regulatory costs and — if it operates more than 350 gaming devices — contribute 0.5% of its net win to a local impact mitigation fund.Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association and owner of Club One Casino in Fresno, said the compact continues a decades-long shift away from requiring tribes to share gaming revenue with the state.“My card room pays $1 million annually to the city of Fresno,” Kirkland said, noting three tribal casinos operate within about an hour of his business but pay no state taxes.”“What was sold to the California public is very different from what is happening today.
It is a scam.”Neither Newsom’s office nor the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe responded to The Post’s requests for comment.Tribal casinos generated a record $46.2 billion in gross gaming revenue last year, according to a report by Casino.org.Earlier this month, The Post found that a five-member Northern California tribe had received tens of millions of dollars in federal and state funding despite years of allegations from its own members that tribal leaders were exploiting its sovereign status.A Newsom-backed state commission also approved the transfer of a popular Mendocino County beach to three Indigenous tribes.Newsom’s new compact marks a significant departure from the tribe’s 2004 gaming agreement negotiated under then-Gov.
Arnold ...