Tribe Deserves Another Chance
Idaho Gov. Phil Batt should reconsider a Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe proposal to operate a bingo parlor/horse racing track at the defunct Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park.
The proposal has promise - and obstacles.
In rejecting the plan last week, the governor focused on the obstacles. He doesn’t like games of chance, whether they’re called “gambling” or “gaming,” whether they’re legal or illegal.
Gambling, Batt said, always promotes crime, hurts families and has “a tendency to impoverish those willing to gamble before taking care of essential expenses.” In a letter to the tribe, Batt wrote, “In good conscience, I cannot accelerate this unwise trend.”
The Spokesman-Review shares the governor’s view of gambling. We repeatedly have opposed casinos and any expansion of the forms of gambling offered in Washington and Idaho. But horse racing and bingo are permitted and established in both states. Besides, the Post Falls track was built for dog racing and now is used for betting on off-site dog and horse races as well as for charity bingo.
That’s why we aren’t as quick to write off this plan.
The Coeur d’Alenes need local, state and federal approval to move ahead because the site isn’t on their reservation. But the site is part of the original land ceded to the tribe by treaty and is near Treaty Rock, where Chief Andrew Seltice deeded the Post Falls town site to Frederick Post.
It would be nice to see the Coeur d’Alenes re-establish a high profile in an area where the county seat, the main lake, a river and a mountain range are named after them.
The tribe’s proposal could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars for Post Falls schools because the Coeur d’Alenes would be required by law to funnel 5 percent of proceeds into education. It also could mean hundreds of jobs for Indians and non-Indians alike. It could mean spinoff business for Post Falls merchants. And it could mean the long tradition of horse racing in the area will continue even if Western Washington horse interests do, alas, finally succeed at strangling Spokane’s Playfair Race Course to death.
The region, of course, isn’t big enough for two horse racing tracks. If Batt reconsiders, something would have to be worked out between the Coeur d’Alenes and Playfair.
The Coeur d’Alenes have been good neighbors in Benewah County. They have shared their medical and dental clinics with non-Indians. Their business ventures have slashed unemployment among tribal members from more than 60 percent a decade ago to almost nothing today. They’re one of the Inland Northwest’s biggest employers.
They deserve another chance from the governor.
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