Casinos may be down on their luck in Portland

Casinos may be down on their luck in Portland
Mayor and governor want gambling to stop short of city limits
By Don Hamilton

Casino gambling may be creeping closer to Portland, but Mayor Tom Potter still wants nothing to do with it.

The state of Oregon agreed this week to let the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs build a casino in Cascade Locks, a mere 40 miles from downtown Portland. If the project clears its bureaucratic hurdles, including approval by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, it could open by 2007 or 2008.

But that doesn’t mean casino gambling is destined for Portland, the state’s largest market. Potter said he strongly opposes any effort to let casino gambling - tribal or otherwise -  in the city.

“Both the governor and I are opposed to any casinos in the city of Portland,” Potter said. “I’d fight it all the way.”

Casino advocates see the state’s decision as a major shift in policy that could open the way for casinos on private land and perhaps even the elimination of Oregon’s constitutional ban on casinos.

A new poll showed general support for a tribal casino in Portland. The survey, conducted March 21 to March 25 by Riley Research, showed 49 percent of the Portland area in favor with 39 percent opposed. Those numbers went up to 64 percent in favor and 30 percent opposed if the state share of the revenue went to education.

If approved, Cascade Locks would become Oregon’s first off-reservation casino, going not on reservation land but tribal trust land, which is land the federal government holds in trust for the tribes. And it also would be the first casino to provide revenue directly to the state, under the agreement the state reached with the tribe.

Two more are in the works

Casino encroachment on Portland doesn’t come just from Cascade Locks. The Cowlitz tribe wants to build a casino at Exit 16 on Interstate 5 in northern Clark County, 25 miles from downtown. And the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, operators of Spirit Mountain, Oregon’s largest casino and its top tourist destination, is exploring a casino-hotel-racetrack complex at Portland Meadows.

Potter’s position is important because tribes need to show community support when they bring a casino request to the state. The Cascade Locks City Council, for example, supported the Warm Springs casino. Potter’s opposition would strongly color how the state would look at an application for a tribal casino in Portland.

“You have to have a community that’s willing,” said MardiLyn Saathoff, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s general counsel. “We’re not going to negotiate with a tribe that doesn’t have that.”

Operators of Spirit Mountain Casino, 75 miles southwest of Portland, fear a drop in business if a casino opens closer to Portland. The tribe has been looking for a way to operate closer to the city, and two years ago offered to build a $350 million baseball stadium in exchange for the right to build a casino downtown. Kulongoski said no.

Members of the Grand Ronde also have talked with Metro, the city of Portland and Multnomah County representatives about building a convention hotel. Recently the tribe also started exploring a casino complex at Portland Meadows with Magna Entertainment Corp.

A formal request for the project may be delivered to the state in the next few months, said tribal lobbyist Justin Martin.

Martin said the state’s Cascade Locks decision represents a major shift in policy.

“This starts to pave the way to look at off-reservation opportunities,” Martin said. “We have a responsibility to our 5,000 tribal citizens to look at other options. That’s what we continue to do in this shift in policy.”

The Cowlitz project on 152 acres in Clark County would place a casino closer to Portland than the one at Cascade Locks. The tribe received a boost through a $6.5 million investment in the project from the Mohegan tribe, one of the nation’s wealthiest and the owners of the Mohegan Sun casino complex in Uncasville, Conn.

To win approval, it must convince the Department of the Interior that the tribe has a historic link to the land around Exit 16.

Ban could be challenged

The Cascade Locks decision also could renew pressure to remove the state constitution’s ban on casinos and allow nontribal owners, which could mean a public vote.

“These issues have turned up the heat on developers who have come out and said maybe we should do away with this constitutional provision that says only tribes can run casinos,” said Len Bergstein, spokesman for the Warm Springs tribe. “I think that’s the next big issue that’s going to face Oregon, not whether there’s going to be one in Portland or not.”

Oregon, of course, already depends on gambling in the form of its lottery. The Oregon Lottery provided 7 percent of the state’s $11.2 billion 2003-05 budget.

Oregon legalizes gambling when the political and economic stars align just right. Betting on horses became legal in 1931 during the Depression, and voters approved the state lottery in 1984 during a recession, sold as a way to help pay for economic development.

Oregon’s first tribal casino opened in 1993, and today, all nine of Oregon’s federally recognized tribes operate a casino under the 1988 National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

In the 2001-03 biennium, the Legislature divvied up $387 million in lottery profits. Of that, 69 percent went to education, 15 percent to economic development, 15 percent to parks and natural resources and 1 percent to treat gambling addiction.

The lottery’s Sports Action and Scoreboard games generated $12.1 million from the 2004 football season, the only time of year the games are active. The money went to intercollegiate athletics and academic programs at Oregon’s state universities.

donhamilton@portlandtribune.com

• Casino Facts