Opinion: Big money, big politics behind casino deal

Tuesday, October 18, 2005  

"If your town was economically struggling while you watched wealth flow past to your neighboring communities, you might be ready for anything, too.

Wouldn’t you jump at the chance to funnel some of that wealth, some of that growth, some of those jobs your way? Would you do it, if it cost your town its livability, depressed as it is?

That’s exactly the question Cascade Locks has faced. This small town in the heart of the Columbia Gorge is the proposed site for a new Indian casino and resort. Do local residents support it? You bet they do, say city officials, who report that a survey of registered voters a few years ago showed that 67 percent favored location of a casino there.

Federal officials stopped taking public comments on the proposal last week, kicking it up to the lawyers and bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Interior has two decisions at hand: Whether to approve transferring 25 acres in Cascade Locks into Indian trust for gaming, and whether to approve the April compact between Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

You could say that the casino’s chances amount to a crap shoot. My two cents’ worth of guess is that the feds will approve the casino. Why? Because there’s big money and big political heft behind it. Cash is king, and the Warms Springs tribes have offered to pay off the state to the tune of 17 percent of their gross gaming take. That would be in the millions of dollars every year. The tribes also agreed to pay 6 percent to local government and public projects."

Get the Story:
Dan Richardson: Cascade Locks Casino Raises Questions of Money, Jobs — and Soul (The New West 10/17)