Vol. 4, No. 3, March 2008
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Compacts Clear
Californians give OK for 17,000 new slots
• The Big Four tribes will sooner or later run 25,000 slots, a third of 77,000 that will then be in the Golden State gaming market by current numbers. They have 8,000 of almost 60,000 slots that brought the state’s 58 tribal casinos more than $7 billion in 2006. The four tribes’ slots each brought in an average $489 per day that year.
• The state will garner $3 billion to $9 billion in shared gaming revenue by the time the pacts expire in 2030.
• Californians support some versions of expanded tribal gaming. The 55 percent rejection of the referendums seeking to undo legislative ratification of the pacts was nearly uniform state wide. Only a few north-state and San Francisco-area counties narrowly voted to reject the compacts.
• Morongo and Pechanga could lay claim to the world’s largest casinos, surpassing Connecticut’s 7,000-slot Foxwoods tribal casino as the record holder. Those tribes can have 7,500 slots if they want the full allotment. Agua Caliente and Sycuan can have 5,000.
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been buoyed in his plan to allow more tribes more slots through renegotiated compacts. “There will be approximately $22 billion that we will get over the next 20 years,” he recently told the Sacramento Press Club. He didn’t explain, saying, “we’re not finished” with negotiations.
The vote also means stiffer competition for Nevada. Already planned are expansions to existing casinos and new mega-facilities, all with the entertainment, restaurants, meeting space and other amenities that are present in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe casino resorts, but closer to the players.
And with more tribes already negotiating with Schwarzenegger, California gaming revenues could, someday, surpass Nevada.
