Stand Up for California! is a statewide organization with a focus on gambling issues including tribal gaming, card clubs, horse racing, charitable gaming and the state lottery.

"This bill does not pose a threat to them"
4/18/2008, The Catholic Daily News
Because of opposition from California's gaming tribes, state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, cancelled an April 15 senate committee hearing on a bill that would have expanded bingo in California. Backed by among others, the Catholic Church in California, Cedillo's bill, SB-1328, would try to remedy a dramatic drop off in bingo proceeds for churches and other charitable organizations because of competition with Indian casinos. The bill would allow local governments to permit "remote caller" bingo games, which allow for a single caller to communicate electronically with games in multiple locations. The bill would also remove the law's current $250 prize limit for bingo, placing instead a limit of 37% of gross receipts for a particular game. 

Rapid growth of tribal casinos now paying off
4/20/2008, News Week
Throughout the 20th century, the state's landscape was covered with gushing oil derricks that often created millionaires overnight. Now at the dawn of the next century, those oil derricks largely have been replaced as moneymakers by the gaming industry, as Oklahoma has experienced an unprecedented growth in casinos operated by American Indian tribes. According to a report published in February by Native Nations, a consulting firm specializing in tribal casino management and financing, revenue from casino operations has nearly doubled to $2 billion in the last two years.
  • Indian casino will be a blow to Northern Nevada
    4/20/2008, The Appeal - Nevada
    We revoked Sinatra's gambling license for hosting his friend, Chicago Godfather Sam "Momo" Giancana, at the singer's North Lake Tahoe Cal-Neva Lodge and Casino. That was a landmark case in Nevada gaming control history and I urge the Commission and Control Board to make history again by taking a hard look at licensees who operate Indian casinos that compete directly with Nevada casinos. In the 1960s, Nevada licensees had to choose between their interests inside and outside the Silver State. I still think that's a reasonable requirement in a privileged industry. Although you may accuse me of wanting to interfere in a free and unfettered marketplace, I think Nevada's interests outweigh other considerations. So I'd give Station Casinos a choice: give up your lucrative management contract with Thunder Valley or relinquish your gaming license allowing you to operate a dozen or more highly profitable casinos in Southern Nevada. I visited one of them earlier this month and it was thriving on a Sunday morning.

  • Casino cash eludes vast majority of Indians
    4/20/2008, San Francisco Chronicle
    The expansion of Indian gambling over the past decade wasn't supposed to benefit just the 11 percent of California Indians who are officially enrolled in tribes, according to critics who recall old campaign promises used to woo voters. It was meant, some observers say, to uplift all Indians in the state, many of whom are poor. But the election assurances have been largely ignored.

  • Tribes toss out members in high-stakes quarrel
    4/19/2008, San Francisco Chronicle
    (04-19) 18:42 PDT Coarsegold, Madera County -- Mary Martinez sat on the grinding rocks of her ancestors - giant boulders with holes used for thousands of years to crush acorns. "This is where my grandmother used to sit, pounding acorns to make flour in the old ways," she said, closing her eyes to let the memories seep in. "I ground the flour, too, like my grandmother's mother and her mother before her. "It's what you do as an Indian. I am a Chukchansi Indian," she said. She is - and she isn't. The 77-year-old Martinez has been kicked out of the Picayune Chukchansi tribe in the tiny Madera County town of Coarsegold - the tribe where she was vice chairwoman just two years ago, the tribe that is full of her cousins.

  • Lots of slots on display, not for play
    4/19/2008, San Diego Union Tribune
    DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO - Thousands of slot machines will fill the San Diego Convention Center next week, but none will pay out a jackpot. The machines will be trade-show displays for about 6,000 people in San Diego for the National Indian Gaming Association's convention. San Diego County is a hotbed of Indian casino gaming and one of three places the annual convention typically visits. It was last here in 2005.


    		• Sign up for our Email Newsletter
    For Email Marketing you can trust

    Upcoming Hearings

    Public Comment Deadline: Off Reservation Proposal -of the Enterpise Rancheria proposed fee to trust land acquisition of 40 acres and the subsequent development of an off reservation casino resort complex in Yuba County. Mail comments to Amy Dutschke, acting Regional Director, Pacific Regional Office, BIA, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. 92825. Written comments will be accepted through May 5, 2008.
     
    Public Comment Deadline:  Comments on the Final EIS for the Scotts Valley Casino in the City of Richmond. Mail comments to Amy Dutschke, acting Regional Director, Pacific Regional Office, BIA, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. 92825. Written comments will be accepted through April 28, 2008.
     
    Public Hearing: Oral comments on the Ione Band DESI, May 21, 2008, The public hearing will be at the Amador County Fairgrounds, 18621 Sherwood and School Streets, Plymouth, California, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., for the proposed 228.04 acre trust acquisition and construction of casino project to be located within the City of Plymouth in Amador County, California.Mail comments to Amy Dutschke, acting Regional Director, Pacific Regional Office, BIA, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. 92825. Written comments will be accepted through July 2, 2008,
     

    Upcoming Conference

    International Masters of Gaming Law Conference, May 21-23, 2008. Villagio Inn & Spa, Napa Valley, California. Register online: www.imglconference.com/conference.htm
     

    North American Regulators Association

    June 10-13, 2008  Register on Line:  www.nagra.org
     

    22nd National Conference on Problem Gambling.  

    June 26-28, 2008,     Long Beach, California.  Register online:    www.ncpgambling.org/conference
     
    INDIAN COUNTRY'S WINNING HAND, October 16-17, 2008, Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino Scottsdale/Fountian Hills, Arizona. Register online: www.law.asu.edu/ilp
     
     

    LINKS and Legislation

    archive

    Stand Up For California - Library

    Stand Up For California - Helpful Links

    ###

    State Legislation to Watch

    AJR 39 -  Assembly Member Huffman

    Reaffirmation of the Winneman Wintu.

    AB 1314 -Assembly Member Strikland

    BINGOAn Act to amend section 326.5 of the California Penal Code.

    AB 1924 - Assembly Member Jeffries Changes the amount of charitable BINGO  funds that may be used for overhead and other operational expenses.

    AB 2026 - Assembly Member  Levine -

    The California Gambling Control in conjunction with the Department of Justice, shall perform a study and report its findings to the legislature by June 30, 2009, regarding authorizing interstate Internet Poker.

    SB 62 - Sen. Florez - Permits the transfer of funds from the General Fund to the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund for eligible recipient tribes should there be insufficient funds in the Special Distribution Fund.

    SB 331 -Sen.  Romero - Imposes a state mandated local program to address tresspassers on tribal lands

    SB 996 Sen. Florez - This bill would require each tribal state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and a federally recognized Indian Tribe to be ratified by the Legislature in Separate Statute. 

     SB 1201 - Sen. Battin Increases the aggregate limit of gaming devices licenses available for issuance under the 1999 compacts to 122,000 slot machines without tribal state compact renegotiations.
    SB 1328 - Sen.  Cedillo - deletes the $250 limitation on bingo game payouts, thereby allows for an award of any denomination.
    SB - 1570 - Sen. Vincent - Requires the Governor to use best efforts to enusre that satellite wagering on horese racing is one of the forms of gaming offered at any gambling facility authorized under a compact.
    SB 1626 - Sen. Steinberg -Game of Bingo to be played by machine with electronic cards.  Slot machines?
     
    SB 1679 - Sen. Florez - Lottery Reform Bill:  requiresthat not less than 87% of revenues be used for prizes and to benefit education, 13% for lottery expenses. Total revenue to education will be decided by the Commission but not less than 1,200,000,000. Requires 1 million to be committed to the Office of Problem and Pathological gambling. Defines, expands and loosens restrictions of lottery game themes.
    SB 1695 - Sen. Florez - Prohibits the Governor from negotiating or concluding a gaming compact with a tribe that does not have land held in trust on which the gaming is to occur and that is not federally recognized.
    SCA 20 -Sen.  Vincent - Constitutional Amendment authorizes Roulette and Craps on California Indian lands for compact tribes.

     

    Federal Legislation to Watch 

    H.R. 3490 - Congressman Radanovich
    Declares that specificed federal lands are to be held in trust by the US for the benefit of the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuik Indians  for non gaming purposes.
    H.R. 5608 Congressman Rahall - mandates that adminstration directly consults with tribes on policies that directly affect their lives.
    S. 2676 - Senator Vitter - Common Sense Indian Gambling Reform Act of 2008. To make technical corrections to IGRA. Consultation with local government.
     

    http://thomas.loc.gov/