California’s Lytton Band has agreed that a permanent ban on gaming can be placed on land that it has purchased in Sonoma County, which would be put into trust by a homelands bill in Congress, H.R. 597.
The Lyttons already operate a Class II casino, the San Pablo Lytton Casino, 17 miles from downtown San Francisco. They purchased 511 acres in Sonoma County.
The condition was approved by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors as a requirement for their support of the bill. Supervisor David Rabbit commented, “The amendment is to extend prohibition of gaming countywide in perpetuity. That is pretty damn good and that’s why we’re here today.”
The original wording of H.R. 597 would have allowed gaming after 2037 on the land. The bill passed in the House more than a year ago by unanimous consent, and now requires action in the U.S. Senate. Both California senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, are onboard with the legislation.
That’s a change for Feinstein, who originally opposed the 2000 legislation that put the land in San Pablo into trust without any discussion or debate. Harris opposed many land into trust applications when she was the Golden State’s attorney general.
