Columnist Jon Ralston: This isn’t a run-of-the-mill casino opening

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program "Face to Face" on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. His column for the Sun appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or through e-mail at ralston@ vegas.com

THE INVITATION to the casino's grand opening perfectly captures the historic nature of the event.

It is "the dawning of a new era." It will have "the finest cuisine at any of our six restaurants." There will be the usual V.I.P. reception, fireworks, music and a "full night of elegant style and hot casino action."

Mark down the day, folks -- April 3, 2001.

The new era will indeed have dawned, but the sun will begin to set on another. Don't go looking for the pyrotechnics on the Strip or in Glitter Gulch. Don't even look in Nevada. This is, as the invitation attests, a chance to "come celebrate the opening of Southern California's First Real Casino."

Yes, folks, two days after April Fool's Day, the joke is on us. The Pala Band of Mission Indians is unveiling a 60,000-square-foot casino, with 2,000 slot machines and 46 table games in northern San Diego County. Oh, it's not quite Strip-worthy. But it is substantial and unlike anything our western neighbor has seen. And it will soon be dwarfed by developments in Palm Springs that will head off would-be travelers to Las Vegas before they get anywhere near Primm.

The Pala casino is just the beginning of the end. Depending on what estimate prevails, there could be as many as 113,000 slots in California within the next few years. And with the Palm Springs Strip and Indians being allowed to take land into trust, as they are in Northern California, the possibilities are virtually endless.

This is the natural conclusion of years of hard work, campaign contributions and lobbying as the Indians have copied the same techniques of other major special interest groups to get what they want -- the dawn of full-fledged gaming in California. Oh, Gov. Gray Davis can continue to talk about his "modest" expansion of current Indian gaming. But this horse is so far out of the barn, Secretariat in his prime couldn't catch up.

Indeed, the Indians in California and elsewhere have learned all the tricks.

As a recent story in the Boston Globe revealed, a couple of Clinton administration aides made favorable decisions for Indian casinos before whooshing through the revolving door and accepting jobs promoting gaming tribes. That happened faster than an ex-Nevada gaming regulator can resign and accept a job with an extra digit on his salary in the casino business.

Yes, the Indians have learned very, very well.

The Palas have been trailblazers in the Indian gaming frontier, with their 1999 compact with the state becoming a model for other tribes. That agreement could not be implemented until the approval of a ballot proposition, fought by the Nevada gamers, that passed about a year ago. The Nevada folks were outspent by more than 3-to-1 and then fought on various legal fronts before succumbing. And then joining their former foes, as only the Nevadans could do -- shareholder imperatives and all that, you know.

A prime example is Anchor Gaming, the slot giant that has a development and management agreement with the Palas and whose executives surely will join the celebration next week in Southern California. Perhaps a wake would be more in order.

Mayor Oscar Goodman was stunned when he received an invitation to the event, suddenly realizing it was not, as he assumed, for a new Las Vegas property. He worries about the nonchalance of most local gamers to the development and the effect on the economy. And he should worry.

April 3, 2001. A day that will live in infamy. But this time the fellows providing the ammunition for this Pearl Harbor attack live right here at home.

At least for now.