California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made no secret that he believes can gaming can be an excellent tool to help build and strengthen the state's economy. The state of California is a leader when it comes to tribal casino gaming.
However, Governor Schwarzenegger was withholding additional tribal gambling licenses in the hopes that the California Indian tribes would pay a bigger portion of gaming revenue to the state. That plan by Gov. Schwarzenegger appears to have failed.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided against a delay of an order on October 1st, 2009 that forces California to hand out the gaming licenses. The state had appealed the August 2009 decision of a federal judge that the state had to release the gaming licenses to the California Indian tribes.
Legal analyst Bob Brice said that even though California will be forced to give out the gaming licenses, there is a strong chance that the Indian tribes will not go after all of the gaming licenses.
Brice said that the economy is simply too fragile right now for any of these Indian tribes to make a serious move into expanded casino gaming. Brice also said that the tribal casino industry in California is already too saturated.
The state has the most tribal casino facilities in the US, and Governor Schwarzenegger is moving forward on gaming expansion. The economy has also recovered a bit in recent months but it is still not stable enough to support all casino gaming operations.
In other states in the US, casino facilities have shut their doors and even in California, casino facilities have laid off employees during the financial recession.
California legislators are also studying the possibility of legalizing online poker as a way to balance the budget.
10/26/2009 22:57 PM
Ann Pettersson