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Brouhaha Over Bingo Slots Builds

The politically-powerful Indian tribes of California have managed to block anyone but themselves from owning and operating Bingo slot machines. In the final hours of the state Legislative session, a coalition of California’s deep-pocketed Indian tribes convinced lawmakers by a margin of fifty-six to three to criminalize slot-like bingo machines, the proceeds of which are used to fund high school sports teams and charity efforts benefiting the blind and disabled. The late-stage approval of the measure, as well as the overwhelming margin by which it passed, can only be attributed to the tremendous influence of the tribes in question, who threatened to withdraw their patronage of state legislators.

The matter came up in legislation drafted by Senator Gil Cedillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles. Interestingly, the deadline for introducing new legislation this year came and went several months ago. To circumvent that roadblock, Cedillo “gutted” a bill related to public school lunches (as reported by a Sacramento newspaper) and added in the slot machine Bingo issue. The Bingo slot machines in question look like Vegas-style slots, with pictures of rolls and playing cards on them. The machines are technically “remote caller” games of Bingo, however, which use the automated display of the machines to randomly display Bingo numbers and match them up to a player’s virtual card.

There is an intense political issue behind the struggle: states cannot tax Indian tribes’ casino revenue without offering them something substantial in return. In California’s case, that bargaining chip is the right to exclusively operate casinos and slot machines. California cannot afford to lose the estimated twenty-five million dollars in revenue raked in annually by the Indian casino taxes, so they were obliged to side against the Bingo operators.

Back to September 2008 Archive.