A new citizens' group calling itself “No More Slots” is gathering petition signatures urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not to allow any additional gambling machines at the Chumash Casino.

“Stop the addition of 5,000 slot machines in our community” urges bright-green fliers being widely circulated by the Santa Ynez Valley group.

In response, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, which operates the casino on Highway 246, is running full-page newspaper ads in the Santa Maria Times, Santa Barbara News-Press and Santa Ynez Valley News over the next few days. Using the banner “No More Lies,” those ads state that “a local extreme group has been scaring residents with a petition about 5,000 new slot machines.

“The tribe is not negotiating with the governor for 5,000 more slots,” the ads insist. “Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't have the facts straight.”

No More Slots will be rallying support for its petition drive, and announcing plans for a march later this month, during a “town meeting” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Veterans Hall in Solvang,

According to a press release from the group and its Web site, www.NoMoreSlots.com, adding slot machines at the casino would mean more traffic, crime and decreased property values.

“Casinos attract gamblers, not tourists,” the release states. “Gambling costs our community in many ways. We are standing up and asking the governor to please not compromise our future and the future of our children to fix a short-term budgetary problem.”

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Last year, the governor negotiated new contracts with several tribes elsewhere in California that allow up to 7,500 slot machines for some of their casinos. The new compacts, if ratified by state legislators, are projected to generate up to $200 million more annually for the state.

Last fall, the local Chumash tribe also briefly discussed with the governor the possibility of adding 5,000 slots. Its casino has 2,000 machines now.

“We had one meeting with the governor,” Tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta said recently. “Our conversations have halted.”

At the urging of scores of Santa Ynez Valley residents, however, the county Board of Supervisors sent a letter to Schwarzenegger earlier this month asking that the county be allowed to participate in any future negotiations about amending the tribe's compact.

“The impacts of the existing 2,000 slots to the county of Santa Barbara, and especially the Santa Ynez Valley, are substantial and, on the whole, negative,” No More Slots contends in its petitions to the governor. “Please do everything in your power to prevent the increase in the number of slot machines in our community.”

Tribal spokeswoman Frances Snyder counters that the new group, like others that have staunchly opposed the casino for years, “are still relying on misinformation and hysteria to drive their causes.”

She flatly disputed their claim that crime has increased because of the casino.

“There is no linear correlation between gaming and crime,” she said. “The statistics are inconclusive. They (opponents) take entire county statistics and place the blame on our resort, and that's just wrong.”

Snyder also took issue with their statements that the casino doesn't bring tourists to the valley.

“Our guests visit the wineries, they shop in town and they frequent valley restaurants,” she said.

No representative of the tribe will be attending the new group's “town meeting” on Tuesday.

“That would be like Martin Luther King attending a Klan meeting,” Snyder asserted. “It would not be in the best interests of the tribe to attend what would essentially be a public lynching. The hatred they display towards us is blatant.”

Chuck Schultz can be reached at 925-2691, Ext. 2241, or cschultz@santamariatimes.com.

March 18, 2007