Report: Nevada casinos were biggest donors in anti-Indian gaming battle

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1999 | 9:46 a.m.

Less than a quarter of the $29.3 million contributed by opponents of Proposition 5 came from California companies, according to the study released Monday by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.

Mirage Resorts Inc. topped the list of contributors with $9.56 million. In all, five Nevada casinos or their parent corporations contributed more than $1 million each to fight the measure, the study found.

"Californians will be upset that outside interests are coming into their politics," Skinnell said. "You want California elections to be decided by California voters."

Skinnell said many California contributors also had business or employment links to gambling that might have been threatened by the initiative's passage.

However, the donations to defeat Proposition 5 still pale compared to the $66.2 million California Indian tribes spent on behalf of the measure.

Voters passed Proposition 5 but the California Supreme Court overturned it on Aug. 23, saying the measure attempted to authorize games that are illegal under the state constitution.

Last month, 57 tribes last month signed a compact with Gov. Gray Davis to legalize gambling and allow the expansion of slot machines on tribal lands.