By BEN SCHNAYERSON, Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - Victor Rocha's conversation bounces from California politics to the latest Indian gaming news as if he were surfing Web sites.
The Colton native and member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseo Indians near Temecula is consumed by Indian gaming and politics because he has spent almost every day for the last five years running one of the most valuable resources for gambling and American Indian politics: Pechanga.net.

From his West Los Angeles home, Rocha compiles articles daily from more than 100 newspapers and trade magazines about Indian gaming and American Indian political issues and, most recently, the California recall election.

"For anybody who loves politics, you look at Indian gaming and you are just blown away,' said Rocha, 41.

He also throws into his Web mix articles about lotteries, horse racing, online gambling, international gambling, compulsive gambling and anything else that fits the mold.

Rocha hopes to update the Web site this fall with a searchable database to better help the journalists, politicians, tribal leaders and industry analysts who visit the site.

He said the Web site gets 20,000 to 50,000 hits a day.

"Victor's Web site is a one-stop shop,' said Andrew Zarnett, a research analyst at Deutsche Bank who focuses on hotels and casinos. "So much of what we do is spread across many jurisdictions. And there is a lot of news that come out of these jurisdictions.'

But the eclectic, hyperactive Rocha doesn't spend more than a few minutes talking about Indian gaming politics or his Web site before he spouts off with his predictions for California's Oct. 7 recall election.

Two minutes later, he jumps on one of his 15 electric guitars and plays the chorus to a Foo Fighters song in front of a poster of Eddie Van Halen.

Rock 'n' roll is the next topic of conversation.

"Music is a big part of my life,' he said, tightening his lip as he hits a high note.

Coming out of Eisenhower High School in Rialto, Rocha hoped to have a music career.

He worked in a local recording studio for a few years and then took a shot at the East Coast music world. His band played "Springsteenish' rock, he said, and opened up for the Smithereens and Marshall Crenshaw.

He returned to the Inland Empire to study at San Bernardino Valley College in 1990 and then moved to Claremont.

But after his father died of stomach cancer in 1994 and his brother was shot and killed about a year later, Rocha said, he left again.

He traveled and worked on rock concerts, including the Lollapalooza festival.

Eventually, Rocha made his way to South Dakota to paint houses.

He also volunteered to help Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., with his campaign. The political junkie inside Rocha was let loose.

"I scared those guys because I was so hyper and such a Type A' personality, Rocha said. "I walked into the room and sucked all the oxygen out of the air.'

At the end of 1996, Rocha made his way back to Southern California and would sit in the back of the room during his tribe's monthly meetings.

He had a lot of interest in tribal affairs, but little involvement.

Around that time, the Pechanga tribe was at the forefront of a fight to get gaming compacts in California and slot machines in Indian casinos.

Rocha began compiling news articles that he found interesting and would e-mail them to tribal members to help out.

There was so much information that in 1998 he launched his Web site, calling it Pechanga.net.

Despite the name, the tribe does not fund the Web site, Rocha said.

Rocha said gathering all that information in the late 1990s helped California tribes coordinate their campaign for propositions 1A and 5, which legalized Indian casinos in California.

"Sometimes, the right information given to the right person at the right time is all that is needed,' he said.

Now the site is a source for anyone interested in Indian gaming.

"I've almost become an ombudsman for Indian country,' Rocha said.

Chet Barfield, a staff writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune who has been covering American Indian affairs since 1992, said he checks the site regularly instead of shuffling through trade magazines that pile up on his desk.

Pechanga chairman Mark Macarro, Rocha's cousin, also checks the Web site often. Occasionally Macarro sees his own words in an article that people around the world can also see.

"It's a little odd,' Macarro said.

Rocha said he is also taken aback by the importance his Web site has attained and by how much time he spends scouring articles from California to Kansas to New York.

"I never thought I would even wake up before 12 on my own volition,' he said.

Copyright © 2003 San Bernardino County Sun