In March, when the pandemic lockdowns were just beginning, San Diego County Sheriff William Gore threatened to close access roads to the ten tribal casinos unless they agreed to close.
This fact, which had been hinted at by some tribal leaders for several months, became known last week when a lawsuit was filed August 6 by the Jamul Indian Village Development Corp., which operates Jamul Casino. The tribe is suing its insurance provider, Lexington Insurance Co., for not paying benefits related to the casino closing.
The lawsuit relates how around March 12, two Jamul Casino employees and a patron were found to have contracted Covid and that another employee had been exposed. A week later San Diego County issued public health restrictions that banned indoor dining and gatherings of 50 or more people.
Tribes at first insisted that as sovereign nations these rules did not apply to them. Which prompted Gore to threaten to prevent the public from traveling to their properties. In one letter he wrote, threatening to “take measures to protect public safety,” which might, he said, “at a minimum, include restricting access to tribal lands by the general public.”
The Public Health Officer’s order was issued March 19 the next day all casinos in the county closed. San Diego is the home to more tribal casinos than any other county in California.
Jamul Village insists that its decision to close was not related to Gore’s letter. Erica Pinto, chairwoman of the Jamul Indian Village Development Corp., declared, “We do not fall under jurisdiction of the county. Our decision to close was strictly a joint effort to protect the people.”
Two months later casinos in San Diego reopened, this time defying the wishes of the Public Health Officer.
