Huge casino set for Bay Area

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Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is close to signing an agreement with a Northern California Indian tribe that could create one of the world's largest casinos in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, two newspapers reported today.

The compact is expected to be signed Thursday between the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians and the state allowing the tribe to build a casino with 5,000 slot machines -- compared to 3,200 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas -- in San Pablo, across the Bay from San Francisco and 15 minutes north of Oakland.

Sources speaking on condition of anonymity told the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee that in exchange for state permission, the tribe would pay up to 25 percent of its gambling profit to the state -- a far larger share than the amount five other tribes agreed to pay in agreements Schwarzenegger negotiated in June.