Dispute Threatens to Sever Town’s Lifeline

ANZA, Calif. — “You can’t miss it,” the casino manager said. And you can’t.

Past the giant grimacing terra cotta lizard, past Lost Goose Ranch and the “Beer to Go” market, way out in what looks like a boulder farm, you’ll find it:

The Cahuilla Creek Restaurant and Casino. Home of big-bucks bingo, a $4.95 grilled ham-and-cheese special and 205 electronic gambling machines that the federal government considers illegal.

Here in this lonely casino--which even a director describes as “35 miles from nowhere”--the traditional tension between Native American tribes and government regulators has sharpened this month as the two sides filed dueling legal papers in federal court.

The Cahuilla Indians rely on video games like bonus poker, electronic keno and blackjack to draw in crowds. But the federal government calls such games illegal, and accuses the tribe of endangering the public welfare by enticing tourists to deposit their quarters in unregulated, unsupervised machines.

The same legal dispute simmers in other towns around California as well as authorities fight to shut down tribes’ most popular--and most profitable--casino games. But the controversy has taken on an especially urgent tone in this dust-streaked town of about 2,000 on the back road between San Diego and Palm Springs.

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In the sagging strip that passes for downtown Anza, people consider the casino their one decent chance at bringing jobs and cash to their valley of potato farms, alfalfa fields and acre upon acre of sage.

Without the casino, civic leader Carl Long says wryly, the most alluring advertisement the town could ever hope to pen would be: “Come to Anza . . . and drive through it.”

The casino is no savior, to be sure. It has cut its work force in half since the heady opening days last summer, when it boasted a staff of 150.

Unlike other, more profitable casinos, the Cahuilla Creek venture has not donated any money to the community.

Still, it’s all Anza has. And in the year since it opened, the casino has won a fair amount of praise from residents, not only for its prime rib dinners and free child care, but for the psychological boost it gave to this struggling desert community.

“Two years ago, we felt like we were going to lose the whole town,” said real estate agent Louise Nordsiek. The mood, she said, was “just depression.”

Then the Cahuilla built their beige, tent-like casino out on California 371. A neon sign winked seduction to passing motorists. Pink billboards promised fun inside. And soon enough, people were actually pulling to a stop in Anza instead of barreling past the few storefronts. There’s even been a trickle of tour buses from Los Angeles and Orange counties since the casino starting offering free transportation for large groups.

“When they started building [the casino], I thought, ‘Who the hell is going to come to Anza to play?’ ” said Ann Schofield, who sells $3 blouses and $10 coats to struggling families in the Soroptomist Thrift Store. “I don’t think they really know where they’re going, to tell the truth. . . . [But] it’s been very good for Anza.”

The casino even buffed Anza’s image among lifelong residents. The town never had a movie theater or a shopping mall or even a bowling alley. For fun, residents had to drive for miles--”off the hill,” they call it. The casino, however, brought some pizazz to Anza. Not to mention excellent burgers. People started staying in town for their nights on the town.

“You can credit the casino,” Nordsiek said, “for bringing people back.”

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But such tributes mean little to federal authorities. The government accuses Cahuilla Creek and other Indian casinos of running illegal gambling without the supervision needed “to ensure honest and proper operations of the games.”

Federal law allows Native American tribes to sponsor only those games that are legal in the state surrounding their reservations. If a tribe wants to introduce another type of gambling, it must first negotiate a treaty, called a compact, with the governor.

None of California’s 34 tribal casinos has forged such a compact. And authorities maintain that without a treaty, slot machines, electronic games and blackjack are illegal because they are expressly forbidden under the California Penal Code.

Federal officials explicitly warned tribal leaders years ago not to install illegal slot machines and come to rely on them for income. When many tribes went forward nonetheless, officials told them not to be surprised--or complain of persecution--if they were ordered to remove the lucrative devices.

For years, the dispute has been tied up in various courts. But attorneys in Northern California now have set a July 31 deadline for Native American tribes in their jurisdiction to junk the illegal machines or face prosecution.

And in Los Angeles, U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella has sued nine tribes, including the Cahuilla. The suit seeks to force the tribes to unplug their slot machines until they sign a compact. After four years of wearying negotiations with the Native Americans, “we believe it’s time for the illegal gaming to come to an end,” said Thomas Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts has not yet set a date to hear the lawsuit. Instead, he’s ordered the Native Americans and the government to continue negotiating.

The resulting stalemate has both sides sulking.

Indignant federal officials allege that some casinos are stuffing their aisles with ever more electronic slot machines, even after receiving notice that the government considers them illegal.

At Cahuilla Creek, meanwhile, acting manager George Salgado said, “It’s hard to keep morale up because we don’t know if they’re going to unplug us.”

In this battle, many in Anza side with the Cahuilla.

“We did enough to the Indians in the past,” said Dona Rauscher, who runs Anza’s one potential tourist draw outside the casino, a crafts store crammed with country knickknacks. “Now we’re saying they can’t have this, either?”

Dave Williams, a retired contractor who owns a weekend place near Anza, agreed. “I think the Indians are getting a raw deal,” he said. “They’ve figured out a way to make money and now we want to shut them down.”

The government’s lawsuit does not target Cahuilla Creek’s unusual “multi-progressive” bingo game, in which each number that pops up has a designated color and players win extra cash if they rack up a row of all blue or all green. But bingo brings in just 200 players on a good night.

It’s the electronic machines that draw the vans full of gamblers from Los Angles, Monterey Park and Anaheim.

Without them, the casino would have little to woo visitors, except maybe “a tour of the rocks” that poke up like chunky sculptures from the sage on the hills surrounding the town, joked Jackie Flores, who serves on the casino’s board of directors.

The rocks are, in fact, a hit with out-of-towners. So is Anza’s crisp-tasting well water. But funky scenery and cool drinks aren’t enough; the casino’s repeat customers come for the electronic games--and the chance to play them in a cozy, low-key environment.

“We love it here because nobody disturbs us,” one elderly woman said as she dumped nickels into a slot machine.

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Aside from the regulars, the casino draws few tourists. And for good reason: There’s not much else to do around Anza, except hike or grab dinner at Senor Ruben’s.

“Once you come in, you’re stuck here,” 29-year-old Los Angeles resident David Wang complained on his first (and probably last) visit to the casino. “It’s not like Las Vegas.”

Still, some in Anza dream that the casino could make a real tourist destination of their no-stoplight town, where there’s just one school for kindergarten through 12th grade and where residents exchange just the last four digits of their phone numbers because everyone’s starts with 763.

Civic leader Long, a pastor who also publishes the local newspaper, figures the casino could eventually support a motel, a gift shop and a lot more jobs. “I’ve struggled with how to get my community to come back for so long, it’s disheartening,” Long said. “The casino is the only hope I’ve had.”