Yakamas Planning Casino, Negotiating With State Tribe Hopes Gambling Hall Will Be Open This Summer, Most Likely In Wapato

The Yakama Indian Nation is about to plunge into the state’s $500-million-per-year Indian gambling industry, most likely with a casino in Wapato.

The Washington state Gambling Commission and tribal leaders will hold a public meeting today in Yakima City Hall to discuss their pending gaming agreement.

Leaders of the state’s largest tribe are hoping the casino will be operating this summer.

“They’ve gone to the casinos in Umatilla and Warm Springs, and they are all sitting on the edge of their chairs,” Leo Aleck, secretary of the Yakama tribe’s General Council, said, referring to tribal casinos in Oregon.

The Yakamas are betting casino jobs and revenue will help reduce poverty and increase their economic self-sufficiency.

There are 17 tribal casinos in Washington state, but seven are being operated by the Colville and Spokane tribes without an agreement with the state government.

The 10 Indian casinos operating under state compacts gross $500 million to $600 million a year in total wagers, 75 percent to 80 percent of which is paid back in prizes, said state Gambling Commission Director Frank Miller.

The 10 casinos have created more than 4,000 dealer jobs, which pay an average of $30,000 per year, including tips, according to the commission.

The total number of gambling-related jobs is about 8,000, including food and service-industry jobs.

Of the projected 569 jobs the Yakama casino would create, 158 would be dealers.

Since opening their casinos, the Muckleshoot Tribe in Auburn and the Tulalip Tribe in Marysville have created grant programs to pay college tuition for any tribal member seeking a higher education.

When the Chehalis Confederated Tribes opened the Lucky Eagle Casino last summer near Rochester, the unemployment rate among the 536 tribal members fell from 60 percent to 10 percent, said tribal Chairman Melvin Youckton.

“They’ve got a place to work and they are willing to learn,” Youckton said. “People can now set goals.”

The Nisqually Tribe near Olympia and Quileute Tribe at La Push also are planning to open casinos this year.

While the 10 casinos in Western Washington are pushing the market’s saturation point, Eastern Washington is “wide open,” said Jerry Allen, assistant manager of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s 7 Cedars Casino near Sequim.

“We’ve begun to share what we consider our territory,” he said. “But the east side of the mountains is an untapped market that will do very well.”

The majority of the state’s Indian casinos are financed by gaming management companies, which can take up to 30 percent of casino profits.

The Yakamas have selected a management company but have not disclosed which one.

Pending an agreement with the state, the Yakama tribe will place its casino in a defunct wood-products factory in the tribe’s Wapato Industrial Park, about 10 miles south of Yakima.