Openings & Closings

Cowlitz Tribe casino seen as impacting lottery revenues in Oregon

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Yesterday we received our last slot delivery! 🙌 This makes 2,500 games awaiting you soon!
Posted by ilani on Thursday, March 9, 2017

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UPDATE: The Cowlitz Tribe expects to open its long-awaited casino in late April. The previously reported opening date of April 17 is no longer solid.

The Oregon Lottery will lose $110 million a year in video lottery sales once the Cowlitz Tribe opens a casino in neighboring Washington, according to a new analysis.

The ilani Casino Resort is set to open in late April. It will be the closest tribal facility to Portland, the largest city in Oregon.

More than half of video lottery sales occur in the Portland area, according to the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis. A significant chunk of that business is expected to disappear with ilani on the scene, contributing to an overall loss in the state.

"If these northern Portland zip codes see a 40-50 percent decline in video lottery sales, that means total statewide video lottery sales would decline 4.5 to 5.5 percent," Josh Lehner wrote in Oregon Business Report. "Factoring in additional losses of around 10-15 percent throughout the rest of the Portland region brings the statewide total impact to nearly 12 percent, relative to the no casino baseline."

The Cowlitz casino is about 24 miles from downtown Portland.