Governor signs gambling regulation, death penalty appeals bills

Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

But Wilson vetoed bills aimed at blocking a new casino in the cemetery city of Colma, authorizing Indian tribes to operate video slot machines and reducing State Bar dues for attorneys.

The Republican governor is spending his weekend reading, studying and signing or vetoing hundreds of bills sent him by the Legislature before it adjourned for the year one month ago.

Monday night is the governor's deadline to act on the bills. Wilson plans to depart the next day for a five-day trade mission to London.

Wilson shook hands Saturday morning with the Senate's leader, Bill Lockyer, the author of the cardroom and death penalty bills, and congratulated him for all the bills lawmakers approved this year.

"Hell of a productive session," Wilson said.

"You've been busy. How many are left?" Lockyer, D-Hayward, inquired.

"Too many," Wilson said as he headed back into his office.

Also, the Assembly's Democratic leader and university leaders criticized the governor Saturday for his veto of a bill attempting to guarantee stable funding for state colleges in future budgets.

The Lockyer bill setting up state regulation of the $9 billion cardroom gambling industry is the result of five years of effort and several tense standoffs in the final hours of previous legislative sessions.

The bill in January creates a new Division of Gambling Control within the Department of Justice to license and investigate card clubs, which are allowed in local communities after a vote of the people. A three-member, part-time Gambling Control Board, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, will review contested decisions by the division.

By Jan. 1, 1999, a five-member, full-time Gambling Control Commission, also appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, will replace the board.

The regulation will be financed by a per-table assessment on cardrooms that varies with the size of the establishment and is designed to raise $5.7 million a year.

The bill also extends until 2001 a moratorium on new cardroom areas.

Attorney General Dan Lungren, who has backed regulatory bills for five years, said the new law is needed because of the sophistication of new cardrooms.

"I have seen the cardroom industry change dramatically from a supplemental income for 'Mom and Pop' businesses to flashy casinos that rival Las Vegas with their night shows, neon lights and hundreds of card tables," Lungren said.

California has three other forms of legal gambling, each one regulated differently. The state lottery and horseracing have their own state boards. Casinos on Indian reservations come under federal law and negotiations and lawsuits are pending to determine the scope of Indian gambling in California.

"This is an issue of increasing significance," Lockyer said.

"This legislation provides the Department of Justice with the resources it needs to limit the spread of money laundering and other illegal activities that can occur in gambling establishments," Wilson said.

Wilson vetoed a bill that would have required the new regulatory agency to consider denying a gambling license for a new cardroom in the cemetery city of Colma, just south of San Francisco.

The bill by Assemblyman Lou Papan, D-Millbrae, originally would have blocked the cardroom, which has twice been approved by city voters.

Papan says his bill was needed to preserve Colma's quiet atmosphere, because "elements from Nevada" were trying to establish a cardroom there. But opponents called the bill an attempt by a would-be cardroom operator to halt the construction under way of a competitor's casino.

Wilson said the bill was unneeded because the new agency has all necessary powers and "the suitability of card club locations near cemeteries can be addressed."

He also rejected a bill by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, that would have authorized California Indian tribes to use video gaming machines in their casinos.

"It is an irresponsible breach of California's constitutional prohibition against Nevada- and New Jersey-style casinos that would transform California into a casino state and would reward those who violate our laws by authorizing their illegal activities," he wrote in his veto message.

The issue of what kinds of gambling Indian tribes can conduct is the subject of pending court cases and negotiations.