Agents Raid 5 Casinos on Reservations : Gambling: One of the Arizona actions against video gaming machines results in a five-hour standoff between tribe members and federal officers.

FT. McDOWELL, Ariz. —  New federal regulations sharply restricting the use of video gambling machines on Indian lands set off raids Tuesday on five tribal casinos in Arizona, one of them resulting in a five-hour standoff here with Yavapai Indians who blockaded the exit route for FBI trucks.

Casino employees and about 100 tribe members at the Ft. McDowell Reservation outside Phoenix massed cars, pickups and construction trucks near the the gambling hall exit to keep federal agents from hauling away six truckloads of video machines seized in the dawn raid.

The confrontation ended only when Gov. Fife Symington arrived at the scene, negotiated with both sides and announced a 10-day “cooling off period.” The blockade then was lifted so the truck tractors could pull out--leaving behind their trailers full of gambling machines, under guard in the parking lot.

“You could see there was going to be no backing down,” said tribe member Gilbert Jones Jr.

He and other Yavapais said they will invite Indians from other tribes to a 10-day “powwow” to prepare for a new confrontation if federal authorities try to remove the machines.

“We will only get stronger, bring people in and get organized,” said Roddy Pilcher, 36, who works as cash operations manager for the Ft. McDowell Gaming Center.

“We’ll have beaucoup Indians out here.”

Altogether Tuesday, FBI agents and U. S. marshals confiscated about 750 slot-type gambling devices here and on four other reservations in Arizona, said U. S. Atty. Linda A. Akers in Phoenix. There were no arrests or other disturbances, federal prosecutors said.

In a statement, Akers said that she had “repeatedly asked Arizona tribes involved in gaming activities to come into compliance with the law,” but that only two had voluntarily stopped using illegal gambling machines.

“The enforcement action today brings the remaining tribes . . . into compliance,” she said.

The raids came one day after the effective date of long-awaited regulations issued by the National Indian Gaming Commission, which said tribes must get approval from their home states before using slots or electronic gambling machines.

In the past several years, tribes in many states have sought to expand bingo halls by adding the fast-paced gambling devices, often despite state laws seemingly prohibiting them. California authorities late last year seized about 300 machines from four reservations in San Diego and Fresno counties, actions that are being contested in court.

Akers first threatened to raid tribal gambling halls that were using the devices in December, but held off until the commission regulations were in place.

On Friday, seven tribes from around the country--including three from California--filed suit in U. S. District Court in Washington seeking to block enforcement of the new rules. They argued that they should be able to use certain gambling machines without their states having a say.

Named as defendants are the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Interior and Justice departments.

Among the tribes contesting the regulations is the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians in Indio, Calif., which in 1980 opened the first tribal poker parlor in the nation and whose long legal battle with Riverside County led to a 1987 U. S. Supreme Court decision granting Indians broad authority to conduct high-stakes gambling.

Other California plaintiffs are the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians outside San Bernardino, which operates one of the largest bingo halls in the nation, and the Rumsey Rancheria in Brooks. Also joining the suit are the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, N. C., the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Atmore, Ala., the Pueblo of Isleta in Isleta, N. M., and the Spokane tribe of Wellpinit, Wash.

About 150 reservations around the country now offer some type of commercial gambling and it is the economic centerpiece of many.

But use of gambling machines has become a heated issue from coast to coast. Indians on this reservation said their machines, which played video versions of poker and other games, accounted for up to 80% of the profit at their sprawling casino, set amid mountains and saguaro cactus. The machines were placed in a large glass-walled room overlooking a 1,700-seat bingo hall.

The Yavapai and other tribes have been deadlocked with Arizona officials for several years over negotiation of gambling “compacts” that are supposed to outline permitted games, betting limits and other ground rules.

Tribal leaders complained that the state will not “play ball” and consider gambling machines at all. State officials, however, say the tribes have thumbed their noses at Arizona’s clear prohibition of slots.

Also raided Tuesday were the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui reservations outside Tucson, the Tonto Apache Reservation in Payson and the Yavapai Reservation in Prescott.

In the confrontation here, tribe members lined up their vehicles to block the moving trucks hired by federal agents.

“I was just out here to make sure that if something happened, the world would see it,” said Jones, 38.

By calling the emergency powwow, “we’ll have tribes from all over the country here,” he said.

“The only way it’s going to end is if they just keep their butts off the reservations.”

Laughlin reported from Ft. McDowell and Lieberman from Los Angeles.