The Pechanga Band of Luise & #324;o Indians, which owns the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, plans to sue California for the right to use certain gambling machines and expand its operations without permission from the state.
Reuters attributed the statement to the tribe’s chairman.
A state compact limits the tribe’s casino to 2,000 slot machines, but the tribe is at odds with the state over whether video lottery terminals should also be considered slot machines.
The Pechanga and the Morongo tribe, which owns and operates a casino near Palm Springs, agreed in January to remove their video lottery machines after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened a lawsuit that could have halted their gaming operations.
Earlier this month, the Pechanga tribe sued to block a California gambling commission ruling that individual player stations linked to a central server count as separate machines under the tribe’s gaming compact.
Tribal casinos within the state take in annual revenue estimated to be in the range of $4 billion to $6 billion.
Connie Lewis
