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Who remembers the proposal a few years ago for the Albany casino development in the vicinity of Golden Gate fields? To sweeten the deal, developers promised a ferry service for the anticipated boatloads of gamblers and shoppers. This proposal went to court and was defeated on appeal.  

On the heels of this Albany waterfront casino defeat, Rep. George Miller created a loophole in Congress that allowed an Indian gaming casino to be built in the nearby town of San Pablo. 

I support Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s last-ditch federal effort to undo the congressional act by Rep. George Miller who caused California’s first urban casino to slip into law by attaching his amendment to a bill all ready to sail through Congress.  

In order to make this urban casino possible, Congress set the clock back 12 years.  

In 2000, Congress designated a real estate parcel acceptable for an Indian card room in the city of San Pablo as land having been taken into trust for the tribe prior to 1988—a federal cutoff date that had passed many years prior. 

The way in which Casino San Pablo came into being was undemocratic. The job of our representative is to represent all of us constituents and the interests of the community-at-large. Every politician has a constitutional responsibility to exercise that basic American principle which declares we are a government of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. 

Isn’t it intolerable that Rep. Miller created a law that allowed a casino for an Indian tribe to be built when a neighboring community had recently won a court case against another casino developer?  

An act of Congress allowed for one card room called Casino San Pablo. Because the city of San Pablo is only one among several neighboring communities, the decision to build an Indian owned card room or gaming casino should have been a community wide decision instead of a Congressional decision. 

What started out as an act of Congress allowing one card room in the year 2000  

is now, in 2004, permitting the prospect of three additional large casinos in my community. The social and economic impact of four casinos to my area needs to be addressed and discussed with this community and not via Congress. 

This act of Congress failed to address the social and economic impacts of bringing a card room to the city of San Pablo and the neighboring area. Studies have shown that real costs of these impacts exceed the benefits of a casino. 

The one sentence bill by Sen. Feinstein seeks to strike that portion from the law,  

leaving the tribe to once more seek “trusted land” through normal federal channels; and would also block the tribe’s casino plans indefinitely. 

Feinstein is pushing to see her bill clear the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee before Congress finishes its session in mid-October. I urge you to help make this happen. 

Mina Edelston is an El Cerrito resident. 

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