Huge Casino is On Hold 

The Pauma Band of Mission Indians has put their plan for a huge casino on hold. The tribe had been trying to bring in a slot machine casino along Highway 76 N. of Valley Center, but now due to financial hardships will be unable to. Just recently they had announced that they were going forward with a temporary structure until they were able to build the larger slot machine casino. However now it seems as though they may not be able to do that either. 

The tribe says that their partner, a Connecticut tribe, has decided to hold off on the project which leaves them unable to complete it on their own. All of this is covered in a lawsuit that the tribe has filed against the state. The suit is simply an attempt to withdraw from a 2004 agreement that the tribe had struck with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger where they agreed to pay millions of dollars each year in slot machine revenue to the state. Obviously without the casino there can be no slot machines, and without the slot machines there is no revenue. 

Gov. Schwarzenegger's spokesperson said that the governor had negotiated in "good faith"and was holding the tribe to the agreement. The tribe says that they are "facing severe financial hardship as a result of the agreement, causing drastic reductions in the tribal governmental budget and limitations on the provision of essential government services for its members." 

The Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe was unable to secure the necessary funding to finish the project, and therefore were forced to pull out.

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