Casino news source: 10 News - http://www.10news.com
Indian Casino Adding Slot Machines May Be In Jeporady
POSTED: 11:35 am PDT May 12, 2007
Cabazon,Calif. -- The Morongo band of Indians has abruptly pulled off the air its $2 million series of advertisements seeking public support for as new agreement with the state that would allow it to add tens of thousands of slot machines at its casino near Palm Springs, it was reported Saturday.
A competing tribe complained that the ads, which urged the public to call legislators to support new Indian gambling compacts, unfairly purported to speak for all southern California tribes.
"When one tribe speaks on behalf of all tribes with a major advertising campaign aimed at the general public, it can cause confusion and erroneously suggest that all tribes are of one mind," said Robert Martin, chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the Morongo in Riverside County do not speak for the Kumeyaay in eastern San Diego County.
The Morongo tribe has spent $2 million to win legislative passage and the governor's signature for its new gambling compact, which is necessary to win approval to increase the number of slot machine in its gleaming new casino off Interstate 10 near Cabazon.
The campaign has featured automated phone calls to voters in key districts all across California, which then connect the call recipient to their legislator's office in Sacramento, and supply hints at what to ask.
Some assembly members said that type of tactics tends to backfire, with irate callers telling assembly staffers to vote against the Indian gaming bill.
One assemblyman, Albert Torrico, D-Fremont, told the Union-Tribune he would not be wowed by what he called an unprecedented effort in a non-election year. |
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