Fear of competition is what drives Detroit-based Barwest’s Quest for Twin Casinos in Barstow
"The wealthy tribes have opposed this primarily for economic reasons," said Tom Shields, Michigan-based representative for BarWest Gaming and a spokesman for the San Diego-based Los Coyotes Indians. He insists it’s this fear of competition in others that motivates their opposition to his client’s plan to relocate tribes to Barstow so his client Barwest can build and manage the Las Vegas-style casinos for the tribes.
According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings
It’s ironic that Barwest & partners try to pin the fear of competition on the shoulders of those who oppose their plan for Barstow. A closer look at circumstances would indicate it’s Barwest’s fear of competition that drives their desire to be in Barstow.
In a preliminary deal Shield’s clients struck with staff in the Governor’s office, they’ve been granted extra special unprecedented protections from likely competitors: they would have an 80-mile wide virtual cone of protection centered over Barstow and spreading out for more than 5,044 square miles to keep any competition at least 45 minutes to an hour away on the western side of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains.
The truth is, Barwest fears competition. Those behind the Barwest syndication are certainly aware that if they were to develop a casino on the Los Coyotes’ San Diego reservation it would have at least 18-20 estalished competitors within a 40-mile radius; the newest San Diego casino would be less than 10 miles from the Los Coyotes Reservation and a Harrah’s managed casino approximately 15-20 minutes away.
At a Senate Hearing on the Big Lagoon compact last spring, Virgil Moorehead, one of Barwest’s Indian partner, said they’d asked for a 66-mile radius zone -- 132-miles wide (an area equal to 13,682 square miles). Dan Kolkey, the Governor’s negotiator indicated at the same hearing that Barwest had pushed him for an even broader zone around Barstow virtually guaranteeing gaming would not creep over the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountain ranges but Kolkey said he refused.
As it is now, the Detroit Developer’s generous competition-free zone, an area equal to 5,044 square miles, extends into Kern and Los Angeles Counties as well as San Bernardino County and could include Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead Resort areas high up in the San Bernardino Mountains/Angeles Forest.
Southern California’s tribes compete head-to-head every day in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties for guests with multiple neighboring properties located 15-30 minutes away. So-called “fear of competition” has not kept existing casinos from undergoing major expansions or new Southern California casinos from springing up.
Fear of competition is what drives Barwest to Barstow.
Take a look at this map below and you can see who has the exclusive competition-free market – a Detroit casino syndication and tribes who have no history in the Barstow area. Why have they been given such generous advantages? Why them? Why not another less fortunate Indian tribe, a tribe even more remote?
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