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California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 2173, ratifying an amended gaming compact with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians that runs through 31 December 2061 and permits the tribe to operate up to 500 additional gaming devices.
The bill, authored by Assemblymember Greg Wallis (R-Bermuda Dunes), was signed on 14 September, according to the Governor’s office. It passed both chambers of the California Legislature with no votes against and was drafted as an urgency measure, so the ratification statute took effect on signature.
What the amendment changes
The amended compact makes three changes to the tribe’s existing terms with the state:
- It extends the compact’s term to 31 December 2061.
- It allows up to 500 more gaming devices at the tribe’s facilities.
- It restructures Agua Caliente’s payments into California’s Revenue Sharing Trust Fund (RSTF).
The RSTF was set up under California’s 1999 tribal compacts. Tribes with gaming operations pay into it, and the fund distributes the money to federally recognised tribes in the state that run no casino or operate only a small number of machines. The published details of the amendment do not give a revised payment figure or say whether Agua Caliente’s contributions rise or fall under the new structure.
Agua Caliente Chairman Jeff Grubbe and tribal representatives took part in negotiating the amendment with the state.
A major Coachella Valley employer
The Agua Caliente reservation covers parts of Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City. The tribe runs gaming and non-gaming businesses across the Coachella Valley, including casino properties in all three cities, and employs around 3,200 people, which makes it one of the largest employers in the region.
Wallis, whose district includes the reservation, pointed to that economic footprint when the bill cleared the Legislature.
“Agua Caliente has been a tremendous partner to the Coachella Valley for generations,” said Assemblymember Greg Wallis. “This agreement respects tribal sovereignty, supports continued economic opportunity…”
One of four compact bills signed the same day
Newsom signed three other tribal compact ratification bills on 14 September: SB 542 by Senator Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), AB 2539 by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) and SB 1235 by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park).
Compact renewals and amendments pass through the Legislature regularly. Agua Caliente’s new term runs 35 more years, which gives the tribe a fixed legal horizon for any financing tied to new construction or a larger gaming floor.
Cardroom dispute in the background
The ratification comes while the state is in a separate fight over cardrooms. California regulators have moved to restrict how cardrooms determine hands in blackjack-style games and the terminology they may use for them, games that tribes have long argued breach their exclusive rights to banked card games under the state constitution.
The California Gaming Association and cardroom operators have filed lawsuits in San Francisco Superior Court challenging those restrictions. The outcome matters to tribes such as Agua Caliente, whose compacts are built on that exclusivity, and to cardroom operators whose table revenue depends on the games in question.
Federal approval next
State ratification is one step. Under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), a tribal-state compact or amendment must be submitted to the US Department of the Interior, and it takes effect once approval, or deemed approval, is published in the Federal Register. The Secretary of the Interior has 45 days from receipt to act.
Once that process is complete, Agua Caliente can begin adding the extra devices. The tribe has not publicly set out how the 500 units will be split between its properties or when they will go live on the floor.
Source: Office of the Governor of California
