Seven weeks after Yuba County supervisors approved the casino agreement, sign-carrying protesters showed their displeasure on the courthouse steps Monday.
Many of the protesters don't live in Yuba County and aren't old enough to vote.
"Statistics show most poor people go into casinos and waste all their money, and then they're even poorer," said Lydia Garcia, 13, of Yuba City. "I just know that."
The Church of Glad Tidings in Sutter County sponsored the protest.
"The crime rate goes up higher where there's a casino," said Angela Talbott, 14, of Sutter. "I've just heard it and read it on little pamphlets."
The supervisors in December approved a memorandum of understanding with Enterprise Rancheria, a Butte County-based tribe that has proposed a hotel-casino on Forty Mile Road.
The project still needs approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a gaming compact with the state.
The group at the courthouse distributed material urging people to write or call Gov. Gray Davis to ask him to reject the casino.
"I think it's wrong," said Natalie Sanchez, 17, of Marysville. "I don't like the fact that five people can decide what's going to affect me for the rest of my life."
The supervisors approved the casino agreement on a 3-2 vote.
Supervisor Bill Simmons, who represents Marysville, voted for the pact.
"His job is to be the voice for the people," Sanchez said. "Obviously, he's not doing his job very well."
She said that "most people I know" oppose the casino.
"I know a broad spectrum of people," she said.
Christine Baker brought her daughters, Jerica, 13, and Rebecca, 9, to the protest. They live in Sutter but soon plan to move to Marysville.
"It's really bad, and people are just wasting their money on stuff they're never going to win," Rebecca said of casinos. "I just think it's bad."
Jerica noted that "there's a lot of poverty in Linda, and they want to build it out there. It would make the poverty go higher because more people would spend their money on the casino and stuff like that." 
  
 Natalie Sanchez of Marysville protests the proposed casino Monday at the Yuba County Courthouse with more than a dozen other Glad Tidings Youth Group members.

Their mother acknowledged she has gambled "once or twice."
"My sister kidnapped me," Christine Baker said. "We actually went up there (to Reno) for food. There's a nice German place up there, and we have to get our German food every year for Christmas."
The mother said she spent $5 and won "about $40."
The proposed casino in Yuba County "is not for the tribes. It's not for the Indians," she said. "It's for the big corporate gangsters."

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