October 28, 2006

Reporter misstates tribes' motivation

Morain:  Greedy "Casino Tribes Try to Keep Entire Pot"

1 comment:

Verifiable said...

What's missed is that the people from out of state pushing agressively for the Barstow compacts are those who most fear competition.

It's just that they've done a good job putting their adopted tribal partners out front as surrogates in a standard "David and Goliath" PR strategy.

It's their fear of competition that's why they have never considered funding projects within the ancestral territories of either adopted tribes. After all, there are four or five casinos within close proximity of Big Lagoon; and within a 40-50 mile radius of the Los Coyotes Reservation there are (or will soon be) 20 casinos or more -- within 10-20 miles of the Reservation there are five including one under construction less than 10 miles away ... Oh but that location is impossible for a casino.

In Barstow they've got an 80 mile wide circle to keep out competition and in reality they've got a lock on the 100-150 miles moat that buffers the Los Angeles Basin from Nevada's state-line and Las Vegas.

Marian Ilitch's pal Kirk Kerkorian must be pleased. She helped him by bidding to buy MotorCity Casino two years ago, and he selected her offer over others that were of a higher bid. One has to wonder what other conditions of sale were discussed.