Gambling Commission Faces A Daunting Task But Under Butch Otter’s Leadership, Consensus To Maintain The Status Quo Might Be The Outcome

At first glance, it appears Gov. Phil Batt has come up with an impossible task for the 12-member committee he appointed to talk about Indian gambling.

If Batt is looking for some kind of consensus, why did he appoint a panel whose members seem - at least on the surface - to be at loggerheads over the key issues?

The governor named a bloc of members solidly against gambling, balanced by representatives of the four Idaho Indian tribes with on-reservation gaming who will fight to retain newfound prosperity.

Nobody around the Statehouse is willing to predict that the panel will be unanimous in any recommendation it presents to the governor this fall.

Batt picked Lt. Gov. Butch Otter to serve as non-voting chairman.

Otter, on a trade mission to Europe this past week, often has worked to get people to talk out problems. And Bob Bostwick, press secretary for the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe, sees Otter as a good choice to direct the discussions.

“We’ve always felt that we certainly are going to get a fair shake from Butch Otter,” Bostwick said. “We don’t know him as anything but fair-minded and open-minded.”

Democratic state Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin of Orofino and Republican state Rep. Bill Deal of Nampa also are skilled negotiators and have helped the state work out some tough problems.

But McLaughlin may be pulled in two directions. Although she has a record of supporting the tribes on the gambling issue, she also faces strong anti-Indian sentiment among her constituents.

Deal has the most experience with gambling issues. He worked on the compacts between the state and individual tribes, shepherded discussions over several legislative sessions on laws covering charitable bingo and raffles and has been involved in horse-racing disputes.

Pocatello Police Chief Lynn Harris won’t say what he thinks about Indian gambling, but he has held leadership positions in the Mormon Church, which opposes gambling of any kind.

Republican state Sen. Grant Ipsen of Boise also is a Mormon and has made strong statements against gambling on the floor of the Senate. A third Mormon, Republican state Rep. John Tippets of Bennington, voted against the Idaho Lottery and the legislation needed to put it in operation once the voters had given their approval.

Idaho Family Forum Executive Director Dennis Mansfield and Boise attorney Stan Crow, who headed the anti-lottery effort in the late 1980s, also are on the committee, along with Episcopal Bishop John Thornton.

In March at a Senate hearing, Thornton opposed tribal gambling, saying there is no moral basis for it and the state should find another means of bolstering reservation economies.

On the other side, the Indians, whose reservations have found prosperity for the first time with bingo games and machine-dispensed pull-tabs, are not likely to give up anything without a fight.

For them, the stakes are enormous.

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe made a profit of $8.5 million last year, even after paying off some start-up costs for its casino, and indications are that this year’s profit will be even higher.

The tribe, which just a few years ago suffered 60 percent unemployment, now has a job for any member who wants to work.

Reservation crime dropped 50 percent between 1995 and 1996 and another 50 percent in the first four months of this year.

Things are the same with the other tribes, although it is believed they have less cash to work with because their operations are smaller.

Batt, who has said he believes tribal video machines are illegal, talked in January of wanting a clear-cut resolution of whether tribal gambling operations are within the law.

But after a visit to reservations, he moderated his stance to the point that legislation to curb Indian gambling went nowhere.

The governor even suggested that maybe a way could be found to make existing operations legal.

His committee has until November to come up with recommendations.

Bostwick said the Coeur d’Alenes are working within the compact they have with the state and “essentially are committed to the status quo.”

Deal, Thornton and some other panel members say their primary goal is to keep gambling from getting any bigger.

That combination could produce a clear majority that agrees there will be no expansion of Indian gambling and that any new machines purchased will be replacements, not additions.