Federal authorities plan to raise concerns with the Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians in Santa Barbara County, Calif., about the way the tribe regulates gambling at its casino, one of the most profitable in California.
Philip Hogen, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, said he was “disappointed” to learn from a recent Los Angeles Times report that tribal members responsible for regulating the Chumash Casino during the past decade had criminal histories and other problems.
Hogen said his agency would initiate talks with Chumash leaders regarding the makeup of the tribe’s five-member gaming agency, as well as possible reforms.
The Times reported that at least seven current and former Chumash commissioners had backgrounds that almost certainly would disqualify them from working at, much less regulating, casinos in Nevada and New Jersey. These included convictions for robbery, theft and assault with a deadly weapon.
The chairman of the Chumash gaming commission is awaiting trial on felony charges of beating and choking his estranged wife. Gilbert Cash, 38, denies the allegations.
Cash has filed for bankruptcy four times in the past decade – most recently in June – and receives nearly $30,000 a month in casino proceeds, as does each of the tribe’s 153 members.
“We don’t want to see people hired in a casino if they have huge credit problems,” said Hogen, a former U.S. attorney in South Dakota and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. “The gaming regulators don’t handle the dollars, but they ought to be held to similar standards.”
Created by Congress in 1988, the gaming commission – along with tribal regulators and state governments – is charged with ensuring the integrity of about 350 Indian casinos nationwide. The agency conducts periodic inspections to ensure that Indian casinos comply with internal control standards.
The Chumash Casino, which has 2,000 slot machines and about $200 million in annual revenue, is one of the most profitable gambling enterprises in the state. Like many tribes in California, the Santa Ynez band elects its own members to watch over casino operations.
California gambling regulators say that under tribal-state compacts negotiated by former Gov. Gray Davis, they lack direct authority to force tribes to disclose the backgrounds of their gaming commissioners.
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