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Politicians Weighing in on Slot Machines
California lawmakers have their work cut
out for them as they try to decide what
to do with the slot machine compacts
that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
signed last year. If they are approved,
they could double the number of slot
machines currently allowed in the state,
and anger the labor unions to the point
where they will pull funding from their
political campaigns. If they don’t
approve them, they will alienate the
tribes, and they will pull their funding
from their political campaigns.
At the end of last year’s legislative
session, the governor signed compacts
with five different tribes that would
increase the number of slot machines
that they are allowed from 10,000 to
22,500. The tribes have agreed to give
some of the revenue from the slot
machines to the state, but the amount of
slot machines that they would be
bringing in would rival the biggest
casinos in Las Vegas – eclipsing them in
their sheer numbers of slots.
The problem is that the Democrats sit
squarely in the middle of the mess. They
are traditionally the benefactors of the
unions and the tribe’s funds when it is
time for campaign contributions.
However, no matter how they vote this
time around, they are going to anger one
of those parties, and thus will have to
lose part of their funding.
Senators that have already been the
beneficiaries of the tribe’s campaign
contributions are bound to help the bill
pass the Senate, especially with
Senators like Don Perata who has been
the recipient of almost a million
dollars in campaign finance from the
tribes. There are many who are against
the slot machine compacts simply because
the compacts to not require that casino
profits have an independent auditor.
Others are concerned with the way the
unionization of the casinos will be
affected.
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