Bingo compromise signed by Schwarzenegger

SACRAMENTO, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he signed a bill overhauling state bingo regulations to allow so-called remote-caller games.

The Sacramento Bee said Wednesday that the measure signed late Tuesday was a compromise between large charities and Indian tribes that run bingo contests at reservation casinos.

The bill agrees to ban the use of electronic bingo machines by charities but allows them to conduct remote-caller games in which players at several different sites are linked together electronically into one big game.

The Bee said the tribes had opposed the use of electronic machines by non-Indian groups because they saw it as an encroachment on their exclusive right to operate slot machines in California.