Tribal gambling pacts take fire

OLYMPIA – What was supposed to be a routine hearing to update the Spokane Tribe’s gambling agreement turned into a broad – and sometimes prickly – debate Thursday on the growth of gambling in American Indian country.

Numerous lawmakers in both parties were clearly uneasy with tribal casinos’ growth into an estimated $1.3 billion industry in Washington. A new round of tribal compacts approved by Gov. Chris Gregoire allows for another 9,000 slot-style machines, for a maximum of 27,225, although tribes could seek more as early as next summer. There are 27 tribal casinos in the state. Another is slated to open east of Seattle this fall.

“Will there be a cap, ever, on how many machines or whatever the tribes can have?” asked Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma.

“Are we done for a while?” state Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, asked Spokane tribal leaders and their attorneys. “Do you feel you’re there?”

“I can only speak for Spokane,” tribal attorney Scott Crowell responded. “And we think that the compact provides us the flexibility that we need.”

But Scott Wheat, another Spokane tribal attorney, bristled at the question. Lawmakers don’t tell Boeing how many airplanes it can make, he said, or Coors how many beers it can sell. Nor do they tell the state lottery how many tickets it can print.

“It’s very difficult for tribes to hear this discussion of creating artificial limits and an artificial market,” he said. “That’s not done in other businesses and industries.”

Gambling is different, lawmakers replied. Its social fallout and gambling addiction, they said, give the state a legitimate interest in regulating it.

Despite the venting by lawmakers leery of more gambling, Thursday’s hearing was “primarily housekeeping,” according to state gambling commissioner Rick Day. The changes, he said, are minor.

Under state law, legislators are required to hold a hearing on tribal compacts, but they have no say in the matter. The negotiations are done by the state gambling commission and signed by the governor.

After years of litigation, the Spokanes negotiated a 114-page gambling agreement with the state last year, shortly before Washington’s 27 other gambling tribes negotiated a similar compact that covers them all. The new changes simply extend a couple of the other tribes’ conditions to the Spokanes.

Among them: The tribe gets a slight increase in the number of machines it can own, from 900 to 975. But it also agrees to a new condition: A nearly yearlong moratorium on seeking any more machines.

The gambling commission will hold another hearing in mid-August in Wenatchee on the compact amendments, which are likely to be approved by the commission and the governor.

In a heated election year, Republicans have hammered Gregoire for approving more slot-style machines and for the state Democratic Party’s acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from tribes. The GOP makes the same criticism about public employee labor unions, who negotiate with Gregoire for pay and benefits and also contribute to her party.

“Why is the money all flowing to one side after these agreements are done?” Condotta asked. “Whatever (Democrats) do seems to come back to them in spades.”

Gregoire insists that it’s not a quid pro quo. She points out that she rejected an initial agreement that would have allowed the Spokanes to have far more machines. She says the party contributions go to broad efforts such as voting drives on reservations, and she pointed out that tribal members have the same First Amendment rights as any other citizen.

As for the unions, she says, lawmakers have the final say on whatever contract her office negotiates.

Republicans also have criticized Gregoire for not seeking a state cut of the tribal casino profits. Eleven other states do that, and the Spokanes offered it in exchange for a moratorium on any new nontribal gambling.

But the revenue-sharing idea was blasted, notably by the late King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. A longtime gambling critic, he repeatedly warned that the state would be less likely to closely regulate an industry putting millions of dollars a year into state coffers.

Other tribes were also unhappy with changes the original Spokane compact would have made in the machine-leasing system. The deal was derailed until last year, when the state and tribe signed a compact.

At Thursday’s hearing, Seattle-area real estate developer Gerry Kingen proposed an alternative: Respond to the growth of tribal gambling by expanding state-offered gambling. Oregon offers electronic keno and poker games in bars and restaurants statewide. The state took in $560 million last year for schools, transportation and the environment, he said, and the businesses got about $300 million.

“Nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room. They just want to gingerly dance around it,” he said. But the shift of gambling, drinking and dining customers to tribal casinos has hurt general tax collections.

“And the impact they’re having on other businesses is just mind-numbing,” Kingen said. “What the hell are we doing and for whose benefit?”