Calif. Senate Votes To Limit Negotiations Of Casino Compacts

(AP) – The California Senate has voted to prohibit the governor from negotiating gambling compacts with Indian tribes that do not have federally recognized land on which the casinos would be located.

The measure by Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, is a reaction to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger negotiating last year to put a casino in Barstow for tribes from San Diego and Humboldt counties.

Schwarzenegger also recently signed a deal under which the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians would be able to locate a casino along Highway 99 near Madera. The site is about 35 miles from the tribe’s reservation in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The U.S. Department of the Interior rejected the Barstow deal. The North Fork Rancheria is awaiting federal approval of the Madera proposal.

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