Indians again an issue in slots negotiations

Marc Levy

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- As supporters of the legalization of slot machines try to compromise on a bill this month, they are addressing the idea of Indian-run casinos, the issue that as much as anything killed negotiations in December.

Compromise on complicated issues often is left to the days just before lawmakers take their vacation, and this is no different: After months of staff aide work on less contentious details, lawmakers are trying to face down the toughest issues before their traditional two-month vacation that begins July 1.

In a draft of gambling legislation that is making the rounds, Democrats have written language that grants authority to a state gambling commission to negotiate a deal with Indian tribes. Under the proposal, a tribe could get a license to operate a slots parlor under state law if it abandons its attempts under federal law to operate tax-free casinos.

A chief proponent of the language is Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia.

"Sen. Fumo still thinks there is a threat that exists if Indians win the right to establish casinos under federal law and that threat is that they would be allowed to operate untaxed, unregulated, full-scale casinos in competition with our slots parlors," said Fumo's spokesman Gary Tuma.

The gambling commission would have the power to "address that threat if the board finds it necessary or desirable," Tuma said.

Republicans in the Legislature have thus far refused to consider provisions for Indians.

Sen. Robert M. Tomlinson, R-Bucks, a chief negotiator on the slots legislation, said that he doesn't want to give any opening to an Indian tribe that could use federal law to have a competitive edge over the other applicants, such as racetracks and resorts.

And a spokesman for the House Republican leader, Rep. Sam Smith of Jefferson County, called the idea a "nonstarter" that would not be allowed onto the House floor.

Legalizing and taxing slot machines as a way to cut property taxes was a key part of Gov. Ed Rendell's campaign platform in 2002.

Indians became part of the issue in May 2003 when the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Okla., and the Delaware Nation of Anadarko, Okla., announced they would attempt to claim land in Pennsylvania in hopes of trading it for land more suitable to hold a casino.

The tribes, which claimed they had been illegally dispossessed of land in Pennsylvania centuries before, are being represented by investors and had asked to negotiate a deal with Rendell.

But slots legislation has been bogged down by disagreements among supporters, and Rendell told the Indian tribes that they would have to prove their land claim in federal court -- a process that could take a decade or more.

In January the Delawares filed their land claim in federal court in Philadelphia.

The language in the latest draft is slightly watered-down from Fumo's first proposal that helped kill negotiations in December.

That proposal would have allowed a gambling commission to grant two slots licenses to federally recognized tribes that have a historic tie to Pennsylvania in exchange for abiding by state gambling laws and forgoing all other gambling operations in the state.