Stand Up For California! is a statewide organization with a focus on gambling issues affecting California, including tribal gaming, card clubs, horse racing, charitable gaming and the state lottery.

Dan Morain: Casino-owning tribes are betting on Brown

By Dan Morain, Senior editor  Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010

Attorney General Jerry Brown casts himself as a no-nonsense prosecutor. But when it comes to asserting state oversight of casinos owned by Indian tribes, he's been less than aggressive.

Tribes that own the state's most lucrative casinos are betting early that Brown will be the next governor. Based on his actions as attorney general, those casino owners will have a friend in the most important corner office in California.

In 2008, for example, Brown sided with the tribes and against the state Gambling Control Commission, which wanted to impose new requirements on the tribe's casino operations, similar to how Nevada casinos are regulated.

Since then, he has collected $692,000 from tribes into various campaign and charitable accounts. MORE...