Colusa Casino allowed to battle for more slots

August 20, 2008

COLUSA, CA - The Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians won the decision of a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court in its fight to add more slot machines in their Colusa Casino Resort. The casino currently operates 864 slots.

The ruling states the U.S. District Court in Sacramento must consider the tribe’s request for more slot machines on its own merits, regardless of how it would affect business at other Indian casinos. The U.S. District Court in Sacramento will now rehear the case sometime within three months.

“The mere fact that the outcome of (the tribe’s) litigation may have some financial consequences for the non-party tribes is not sufficient to make those tribes required parties,” wrote Judge William Canby Jr.

In 2003 the tribe applied to the California Gambling Control Commission to add 377 more slots but was denied. The Cachil Dehe sued in October 2004, however, the federal courts dismissed the case in 2006 because other tribes had not joined the suit as “indispensable parties.”

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