Coalition Takes On Tribal Gambling Conservative Christians, Anti-Gambling Leaders Join Forces To Counter Indian Ads
The battle over the future of Indian gaming in Idaho has escalated.
Conservative Christian and anti-gambling leaders have joined forces to counter Indian advertisements praising the benefits of gambling.
Calling itself Help Idaho Thrive, the coalition filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of state’s office this week.
And for the second time this week, the Senate State Affairs Committee held a standing-room-only hearing Wednesday on legislation that could crimp tribal gambling.
Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce tribal leaders said Monday their casinos employ more than 400 workers - many of whom previously have been on welfare.
Coeur d’Alene tribal spokesman Bob Bostwick maintained Indian gambling is heavily regulated, extremely limited and locally controlled with every penny of profit reinvested in local communities.
The key to the success of tribal casinos has been electronic gambling devices that resemble slot machines.
The legislation, proposed by Gov. Phil Batt, would tighten up the law that legalized the state lottery, declaring that the lottery can’t offer electronic simulations of games. That could take away part of the basis of the tribes’ arguments that their machines are legal.
Under federal law, sovereign Indian tribes may offer any type of gambling that is legal elsewhere in the state.
The tribes have mounted an expensive media blitz in an attempt to sway public opinion in their favor.
Help Idaho Thrive will attempt to counter that.
Dennis Mansfield, executive director of the Idaho Family Forum, claimed national gambling interests want to expand into “soft spots.”
He said Help Idaho Thrive expects support from business interests and conservatives in its attempt to show the public what gaming does to a community economically.
Mansfield pointed out that tribal members told the State Affairs Committee Monday that the average person spends $60 to $100 per day at an Indian casino.
“Does anybody hear that sucking sound?” Mansfield asked. “They aren’t putting money in the hands of Indian families. They are sucking it out.”
Bostwick, however, raised the question of hypocrisy and even bias in pointing out that Help Idaho Thrive is not protesting gambling at the Les Bois horse racing track in Boise or the state lottery, which will take in more than $90 million from bettors this year.
“Indian gaming is so distant from Boise,” Bostwick said. “They can come at this all they want with fear, which is all they have. We’ll dispel every fear with fact.”
The Help Idaho Thrive board includes Mansfield, Boise businessman and failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Eastland, and Stanley Crow, chairman of the group that promoted the 1992 constitutional amendment banning casino gambling and leader of the 1986 and 1988 campaigns against a state Lottery.
, DataTimes