Keep Indian Gaming on Indian Land

California voters passed Propositions 1A and 5 with the explicit understanding that Indian gaming would only be allowed on Indian lands.

The lure of vast profits, however, has resulted in dozens of tribes and their Las Vegas gambling partners to attempt to break this promise in order to build huge Vegas-sized casinos in urban areas and along busy highways.

One of the most egregious examples of this reservation shopping is a plan by the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and their Las Vegas partners, Station Casinos, to build a $250 million casino in Central California along busy Highway 99 that would be 47 miles away from the tribe’s existing tribal lands in the Sierra foothills.

The North Fork tribe has no ancestral ties to the land on the San Joaquin Valley floor more than 47 miles away from their federally recognized lands. In fact, the North Fork tribe has a viable gaming site on its traditional lands. But the tribe and their Vegas partners are reaching for the big prize of easy profits from a mega-casino off a major freeway on non-native land.

This is a dangerous precedent that will allow other tribes to shop for the most lucrative locations for their casinos far away from their traditional tribal lands. In fact, tribes in California have 21 pending applications to acquire new land for gaming. There’s another 85 applications by tribes to acquire more than 8,000 acres of land which may also be used for gaming. Make no mistake—this will set a precedent for off-reservation gambling throughout the state.

If the Department of Interior approves the North Fork application to annex a 305 acres site just off one of the Central Valley’s busiest freeways, it will open the floodgates for these other tribes to begin reservation shopping everywhere else in California. This is not what California voters intended when they authorized Indian gaming.

Please join the growing coalition of local governments, state legislators, clergy, and other tribes that are opposed to the North Fork tribe’s off-reservation casino.

Please Oppose The North Fork Off-Reservation Casino.

Let Vegas Casinos Stay in Vegas. Keep Indian Gaming on Indian Lands.