"As any experienced chess player knows, what appears to be an attractive move in the short term often turns out to be disastrous.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski's decision to allow the Warm Springs tribes to build the state's first off-reservation casino in the Columbia River Gorge community of Cascade Locks has all the earmarks of such a move.

In the short term, it has substantial appeal. If the project wins federal approval, the state's compact with the tribes would avert development of a casino on environmentally sensitive land near Hood River in the heart of the gorge.

But in the long term, Kulongoski's decision is a miscalculation. It's a precedent that could result in large casinos springing up in metropolitan areas throughout the state and intensify the state's already-raging addiction to gambling revenues."

Get the Story:
Bad bet for Oregon: Other tribes will seek off-reservation casinos (The Eugene Register-Guard 4/8)