- Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 25-year compact Aug. 4 raising the Yurok Tribe’s machine cap from 99 to 349.
- California drops its 10% to 25% cut of the tribe’s net win for a share of regulatory costs.
- At 349 devices the tribe stays a Limited-Gaming Tribe drawing $275,000 a quarter from the state fund.
- The compact stays inert until tribal and state ratification and federal notice, and the 2006 deal expires Dec. 31.
KLAMATH, Calif. – Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 25-year Class III gaming compact with the Yurok Tribe on Aug. 4 that ends California’s 10% to 25% share of the tribe’s slot-machine win. The agreement, which the governor’s office announced Aug. 5, raises the tribe’s authorized machine count from 99 to 349 and replaces a 2006 deal that expires Dec. 31.
What The 2006 Compact Charged
The agreement the Yurok Tribe entered into Aug. 30, 2006, put a graduated levy on the machines at its Redwood Hotel & Casino in Klamath. Section 4.3.1 set payments to the state at 10% of annual net win up to $50 million, rising through 14%, 18% and 22% at $50 million intervals to 25% above $200 million. The tribe remits the money quarterly with a net win report.
The same section lets the tribe deduct payments made under its intergovernmental agreements with Del Norte and Humboldt counties. It caps the floor at 99 machines, up to 20 of them at an ancillary facility.
Section 14.2 of that compact ran to Dec. 31, 2025, and a second amendment executed Dec. 18, 2025, and ratified in Sacramento in May carried the end date to Dec. 31, 2026.
Cost Reimbursement Replaces Revenue Sharing
The phrase “net win” does not appear anywhere in the 118-page replacement. Section 4.3 obligates the tribe to pay a pro rata share of what California spends on compact administration, regulation and the Office of Problem Gambling. The formula divides the tribe’s device count by the statewide tribal device count, then multiplies the result by the annual budget appropriation. It caps any year-over-year increase in that appropriation at 5%, and the parties expect increases well below the cap.
Section 5.2 disposes of the rest in a sentence. The tribe has “no obligation to pay any amount” toward either the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund or the Tribal Nation Grant Fund, the accounts that move gambling in California money from large gaming tribes to tribes running no casino or a small one. Section 11.0 waives local government mitigation payments on the same reasoning, stating that the tribe “will remain a Limited-Gaming Tribe” at the device count the compact authorizes.
The device ceiling explains that sentence. Section 5.1 defines a Limited-Gaming Tribe as one operating fewer than 350 devices, and the compact stops at 349. The Yurok Tribe of the Yurok Reservation sits at line 89 of the California Gambling Control Commission’s distribution report for the quarter ended March 31, drawing $275,000 for the period and $26,861,089.02 since the fund began. The commission paid the same $275,000 to 70 of the 89 tribes on its list, $19.25 million for the quarter.
Three Sites, Horse Racing And A 25-Year Clock
Section 4.2 lets the tribe run up to three gaming facilities on trust land inside the reservation, which spans parcels in Del Norte and Humboldt counties. The 2006 compact allowed one facility plus one ancillary site in the Klamath town site.
Section 3.0 also adds a product the old agreement withheld. Subdivision (a)(4) authorizes off-track pari-mutuel wagering on horse races at a satellite facility, and Appendix C binds the operation to the California Horse Racing Law and the California Horse Racing Board’s rules. The 2006 compact did not authorize off-track wagering, and Section 4.1 left it to a separately negotiated agreement.
Banking and percentage card games remain authorized, as they were in 2006, alongside games offered under state law to the California State Lottery. If the tribe opens a satellite site, California horse betting would gain a tribal simulcast venue on the north coast.
Section 14.2 runs the compact 25 years from its effective date. Section 15.2 extends it automatically for 18 months if the parties have not reached a new agreement by then, and for two more years beyond that if both sides certify in writing that negotiations are progressing. The 2006 compact carried a fixed end date with no such mechanism, which is what left the tribe negotiating one-year extensions.
The compact lands in the middle of a statewide buildout, one in which tribal casinos spend billions on new resorts and gaming floors. Yurok would expand under a 349-device ceiling and without the revenue-sharing obligations that tribes above the 350 line carry.
Ratification Before Dec. 31
Section 14.1 keeps the compact inert until it is ratified under both tribal law and California law and notice of federal approval is published in the Federal Register under 25 U.S.C. 2710(d)(3)(B). Section 18.8 requires the tribe to deliver written proof of ratification by its governing body to the governor within 30 days of execution.
The existing compact terminates Dec. 31, 2026. If the Legislature does not ratify the replacement and the federal notice does not publish before that date, the 99 machines at the Redwood Hotel & Casino lose their state-law authorization.