California tribe eagerly embraces casino expansion

Ben Fox

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 9:24 a.m.

ALPINE, Calif. - Peter Tony drives four hours to Laughlin, Nev. to play $3 slot machines twice a month, but he won't be making that trek much longer.

Instead, Tony will take a half-hour drive from his home in San Diego to the Viejas Casino and Turf Club, a faux stone-and-adobe complex of buildings in the mountains 30 miles to the east.

"If they're going to be in full swing here, why should I go to Laughlin?" the 64-year-old sales manager asks.

There's a lot of money being wagered on people like Tony.

The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians has hired veteran Nevada gambling executives and prepared expansion plans to take advantage of Proposition 1A, the initiative adopted by 65 percent of voters Tuesday that allows Nevada-style games of chance on California tribal lands.

"You'll see us get a lot better," tribal chairman Anthony Pico said Wednesday.

Gambling first moved west a decade ago as California Indian tribes began operating quasi-slot machines that look like video games and spit out slips of paper instead of coins.

But such machines have limited appeal to gamblers. It's harder for players to move quickly between games - they have to wait for a cashier to trade the paper receipt for cash - and it's more difficult to work several machines simultaneously.

It's also just not as much fun.

"I like to hear the coins drop," said Tony, who was checking out the Viejas Casino on Wednesday for future trips. "A piece of paper is just not as good."

That was the reality behind Proposition 1A, which allows tribes to operate 45,000 Vegas-style slot machines. They now have about 19,000 of the video-style games.

The San Diego area, along with Palm Springs, is expected to be a major center of Indian gambling because of its proximity to Los Angeles and Orange County and its patchwork of tribes scattered around the city's rural fringe.

San Diego County already has three major casinos, including Viejas, with more on the way.

The Rincon San Luiseno Band of Mission Indians signed a contract with Harrah's Entertainment Inc. to build a $100 million hotel-casino. The Pala Band of Mission Indians reached a deal with Anchor Gaming to build a $90 million casino. And the Campo band has announced an arrangement with International Thunderbird Gaming Corp. to build a casino east of Viejas.

Viejas executives say they aren't worried. They opened a $16 million casino expansion in November and hope to begin installing the real slot machines within months, said General Manager Andy Asselin, who previously worked for the Hilton casino in Reno.

Viejas will also be expanding and reconfiguring its t-shaped gambling floor to accommodate more machines and card tables. The tribe will have 2,000 slot and video machines, up from 1,132 now.

The tribe is also diversifying its economy. Viejas operates an outlet mall next to the casino with Nike, Gap and Tommy Hilfiger outlets that is undergoing a $15 million expansion. Last year, they announced plans to buy a small local television station and to run a gambling cruise ship from San Diego to Rosarito, Mexico, in partnership with Florida's Commodore Holdings Ltd.

Pico said the 300-member tribe may not be able to count on gambling forever.

"We see gaming as a rock in a creek that we must step across," Pico said. "And on the other side of that creek is economic diversification."

Whether the economic progress comes at the cost of gambling centers in Nevada remains to be seen. Pico suspects there will be only a minor drop off in Las Vegas, but probably a substantial one in Laughlin, where about 40 percent of wagers are made by Southern Californians.

Another negative effect is seen by Proposition 1A opponents such as former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, who said the huge expansion of Las Vegas-backed casinos spells trouble for many Californians with gambling addictions.

Several interviewed inside the darkened Viejas casino said they would cut down on trips to smaller Nevada cities, but would still go to Las Vegas for the lights and excitement. Concerns about gambling elicited shrugs.

"I should know better than this," said Ann Travers, 78, a retired bank manager from Lakeside, as she fed money into a video machine. "But I've got to do something. I can't just sit at home and rot."