Tribal gaming deal not close - Oakland Tribune

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Oakland Tribune


Tribal gaming deal not close
East Bay plan tied up in red tape as governor negotiates with state casinos


By Josh Richman
STAFF WRITER


Thursday, June 03, 2004 - The lawyer for an Indian tribe planning a Nevada-style casino in the East Bay says an all-important deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't as imminent as some might think.

"It's an ongoing process, nothing is imminent, the parties are continuing to work together productively," Tony Cohen, attorney for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, said Wednesday.

While the state and California's casino-operating tribes continue talks on a mass gaming-

compact deal, the Lytton Band lags behind, Cohen said. "It doesn't already have a compact to amend, and so we have more work to do than the others."

Howard Dickstein, an attorney representing several gaming tribes, has been quoted in recent days as saying it'll be a few weeks to a month until that mass deal is struck, but "that's just not the case for Lytton because the situation is unique and there are more issues to deal with," Cohen said.

And as for rumors of specific terms of a Lytton-state deal, "it's not even close to true," he said. "Lytton has had no money conversations at all."

The Lytton Band took over Casino San Pablo -- a Moorish-style structure on

9 acres at San Pablo Avenue and San Pablo Dam Road, about 15 minutes north of Oakland off Interstate 80 -- in October, but can't install Nevada-style, house-banked gaming without first negotiating a compact with Schwarzenegger. Such talks have been under way for months.

Schwarzenegger in January appointed San Francisco attorney and former state appeals court judge Daniel Kolkey to lead the state's negotiations with all of California's gaming tribes; the goal has been a trade-off in which the tribes are allowed to operate more slot machines -- the most lucrative kind of gambling there is -- in exchange for giving the state a cut of their take.

Rumors have flown in recent days that a deal is imminent, perhaps involving a

$1 billion lump-sum payment followed by future installments from the tribes to the state in exchange for unlimited slots. Nothing is official yet.

The Lytton Band's plan has been controversial because Casino San Pablo would be the state's first urban-sited tribal casino -- something former Gov. Gray Davis said he ardently opposed.

Peter Siggins, Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, said at the time of Kolkey's appointment in January that the governor has "a sensitivity to the issue of tribal gaming in urban areas" and will approach that particular negotiation in good faith, but "deliberately and prudently."

Contact Josh Richman at jrichman@ang-

newspapers.com .
 

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