Minicasinos Bet On A Full House Nontribal Establishments Bring Call For State Policy On Gambling

The first nontribal minicasinos are open in Renton and Spokane under state laws intended to help non-Indians compete in the gambling arena, and some observers say it’s time to come up with a state policy on gambling.

The new, scaled-down casinos are allowed under changes quietly approved by the Legislature over the past two years to help cardroom owners expand and compete.

So far, they’ve prompted nearly 80 requests for minicasino licenses. Over the next three months, the Washington State Gambling Commission will vote on proposed minicasinos in Tukwila, Skyway, Anacortes, Edmonds, LaCenter, Spokane, Kennewick and near Bellingham.

Kim Laskey, director of marketing for the Muckleshoot Indian Casino, says he doesn’t consider them direct competition.

“We provide gaming customers more than just gambling - we provide the complete entertainment experience,” Laskey said. “We feel our customers will continue to come to us for the overall experience.”

The minicasinos and a pending federal court decision on the legality of slot machines in tribal casinos are prompting calls for a state task force on gambling.

“It seems that we are just drifting toward more gambling without knowing where we are going or having a state policy on it,” said state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle.

Prentice said she doesn’t want to stop gambling.

“I just don’t want it to get out of hand and go willy-nilly in any direction,” she said.

Not all the card-room owners who have expressed interest in minicasino are likely to follow through, said Carrie Tellefson, the Gambling Commission’s director of policy, planning and support. She said she expects most will be in south King County and the LaCenter area, north of Vancouver.

Tribal casinos have up to 52 tables and accept bets up to $500. They offer roulette, craps and keno, plus a variety of card games.

Under the new laws, nontribal operations are limited to 15 tables and can take maximum bets of $100 only after six months of business. They offer card games only.

In the past, card-room operators were limited to five tables and could only charge patrons up to $3 for each half-hour of play. Owners could not bankroll the games or take a cut of the pots.

Now they can bankroll games, charge players a fee for every hand and take a percentage.

“It’s everything I had hoped it would be,” said Fred Steiner, who long operated Diamond Lil’s in Renton and in November added Freddie’s Club, the state’s first minicasino, which has 160 employees and is grossing an estimated $500,000 a month.

The changes were approved by the Legislature after a two-year push by Steiner and others. Silver Lanes in Spokane’s Lincoln Heights area is the only other minicasino to open so far.

The changes “were sold by the (gambling) industry as level-the-playing-field bills,” Tellefson said.

Steiner said he lost half his card-room business when the Muckleshoot casino opened in 1995.

“I realized that if we didn’t change some laws, I was out of business,” he said.

“We were in a hate war with the Indians for a while. But now I thank the Indians, because we would never have gotten this without them.”

Tellefson said the changes will improve state oversight.

“The card rooms in this state are kind of the armpit of the industry, although I hate to use that word,” she said. “Generally they are back rooms. They are small. They are smoky. And they are in bowling alleys and taverns.”

Upgrading them into minicasinos provides cleaner, more upscale gambling operations with increased protections against illegal activity, Tellefson said.

House-banked card games - in which everybody plays against the house rather than against one another - are easier to control because of the new system’s security requirements and regulations.

Licenses will be granted almost exclusively to card-room operators with six months’ experience in Washington, a provision intended to make it harder for out-of-state gambling interests to become involved.

Each minicasino must have a separate surveillance room, a secured cashier’s cage, a secured room for counting money and extra supervision on the floor.

Most card rooms seeking to upgrade will have to spend between $30,000 and $150,000 on surveillance systems, she said.

Tellefson expects the nontribal industry to seek approval for more games and tables, but doubts legislators will approve them.

“I think we have gone about as far as the Legislature wants to go,” Prentice agreed. “Having more tables and higher stakes is an invitation to corruption.”

She thinks a task force could help figure out where to draw the line.

She considers the need more urgent now that slot machines have been installed in tribal casinos in British Columbia. Oregon also has slot machines in its tribal casinos, and Idaho has what amounts to slot machines.

State officials here have resisted slot machines and are awaiting a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that will determine whether state tribes have the right to put them in their casinos. Several Eastern Washington tribal casinos have slot machines now, pending a ruling.

If the tribes win that fight, Tellefson expects legislators will be pressured to allow slots in non-Indian minicasinos.

“If one aspect of the industry gets slot machines, it’s going to open the floodgates,” she said.