Batt Stacked Gaming Panel For Stalemate Seeking Vigorous Debate, He Didn’t Just Roll Dice

Gov. Phil Batt said on Friday he purposely split the 12 votes on his gambling committee between advocates and critics of gambling to force a full-scale debate on Idaho’s policy.

Batt realizes that there will be no unanimous recommendations on the core issues from a panel with such a sharply divided membership.

“But while some may say that guarantees stalemate, I think it’s going to guarantee some useful discussion of the whole matter,” the governor told leaders of Idaho’s five tribes.

Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Ernest Stensgar expressed concerns about the committee makeup in a letter to the governor, and Batt told his representative, Marjorie Zarate, that he did his best to balance the panel’s membership.

The voting members of the committee include representatives of the four tribes already conducting gambling operations that have generated millions of dollars in profits and hundreds of new jobs for their struggling reservation economies.

They are balanced by four staunch gambling critics. And the final four members appear to have less strident positions but are again split two for and two against.

In his first meetings with tribal leaders this year, Batt was quickly asked by officials of the fifth tribe, the Shoshone-Paiutes, for a seat on the committee even though they have no gambling operation and do not plan one.

Batt acknowledged the legitimacy of the request. But he said the addition of another member would upset the balance he had tried to create on the panel and since the Shoshone-Paiutes have no gambling, “the gaming question is not as critical to you.”

He promised to advise the committee that while the tribes would not have a vote, they should otherwise be allowed to fully participate in the deliberations.

The first of what will probably be six meetings will be held in early June by the committee that was the result of an unsuccessful - and at the end halfhearted - attack on the use of electronic pull-tab machines in tribal casinos. The tribes claim they are legal. The state says they are not.

While an opponent of gambling in general, Batt’s initial opposition to the machines softened to the point that he suggested the panel might find some way to make existing tribal operations legal under state law.

The governor told the tribes he has not preordained what results he wants the committee to produce by November.

But, he said “I’m looking for a bright line for Idaho because I have seen in the other states a leapfrogging.”

He said Oregon recently agreed to let one tribe conduct all the gambling activities that are legal in Nevada.

“I don’t think we want that in Idaho,” the governor said. “That’s why we need to look at where we want to go.”

He cited the Coeur d’Alenes’ recent announcement of an expansion of their casino and entertainment complex that will include off-track betting, which is allowed under the gaming compact with the state. But Batt predicted that once the tribe begins taking off-track bets, non-Indians will want the same opportunity. Now, any off-track betting operation off a reservation must be linked with live racing.

Zarate also told the governor that while the expansion contemplates an off-trackbetting operation, there is no plan for that in the near future.

But for all the governor’s explaining, Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee member Julia Davis was blunt about what can be expected - the state Lottery, that generates $20 million for public works projects each year, and tribal casinos will continue operating.

“What it basically comes down to is economic development for the state and for the tribes,” Davis said. “Basically, what it comes down to is money. That’s going to be the basic factor of all the recommendations.”