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Contra Costa Officials Consider Indian Casino Ban

Posted: 5:27 pm PDT April 3, 2005Updated: 9:46 am PDT April 4, 2005

Contra County supervisors are poised to consider a resolution banning the creation or expansion Indian gaming casinos.

Supervisors John Gioia and Gayle B. Uilkema said they will introduce the resolution Tuesday that also calls for a ban on new Indian reservations with gaming anywhere in the county.

"When voters approved Proposition 1A allowing casino-style gambling on Indian lands, they did so with the assurance that tribal gaming would be limited to existing Indian reservations, none of which were then in densely populated urban areas," Gioia said in a statement. "Voters did not expect a major casino to be located in the middle if their own urban community."

Three casinos are currently proposed in Gioia's district, he said.

Gioia said Tuesday's proposal will also call for supervisors to support legislation introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which would effectively reverse federal approval for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians' proposed expansion of Casino San Pablo.

The Lytton Band got the right to expand the San Pablo card room because of language inserted in a 2000 spending bill by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., that gave the land special federal trust status.

Feinstein's bill seeks to revoke the special trust status and require the tribe to go through the normal state and federal approval process.

Supporters of the San Pablo expansion claim the casino will generate millions in revenue for the financially strapped city and create 6,600 jobs. Critics said Las Vegas-style gambling in San Pablo would cost the Bay Area about $193 million a year.

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