Governor to Appeal Decision to Allow More Slots

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger is going to appeal a recent decision by US District Court Judge Frank Damrell to require the state to make available an additional 10,549 slot machine licenses.

The Governor believes there are no more machines available based on his interpretation of the 1999 gambling agreements, which set a statewide cap on the number of machines at 32,151.

Jeff Macedo, a spokesman for the governor, said the state will appeal the decision and seek to stay the judge's order to distribute the additional licenses.

"What we're trying to do is enforce the terms of the 1999 compacts," Macedo said.

Scott Crowell, attorney for the Rincon band, thinks the state is keeping the cap low so that tribes will be forced into new negotiations to receive more slots and where the governor hopes get the tribes to pay more money in exchange for the machines.

"The governor manufactured this arbitrary shortage to coerce tribes into these unreasonable deals, and that's tragic," Crowell said.