Gambling Industry Worried About Market Developer Of Airway Heights Project Proceeds With Caution

The gambling industry itself just became a riskier game in the Inland Northwest.

At least according to the players.

Gov. Gary Locke’s decision not to block a planned $17 million tribal casino in Airway Heights has competitors worried about saturating a gambling market they’ve barely begun to tap.

“There are only so many gamblers,” said Dave Matheson, top executive of the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Bingo Casino in Worley, Idaho.

Up to nine house-banked casino-style cardrooms could be operating in the city of Spokane by the end of the year.

Even Airway Heights’ project developers said they may alter their 4-year-old plans in response to Spokane’s gambling explosion.

“We’re looking at a different gaming atmosphere than we were when we started this,” said F. William Johnson, vice president for gaming at Carnival Hotels and Casinos. “There’s no question there’s a market in Spokane, but what is that market now?”

To be safe, he said, the Airway Heights project likely will be developed in phases.

Johnson has been working with the Kalispel Tribe to open a 55,000-square-foot casino, restaurant and bingo hall outside Spokane.

On Friday, Locke agreed with U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s 1997 decision that the casino “would not be detrimental to the surrounding community.”

That means the Kalispels have only to negotiate a regulatory compact with the state before they could begin offering roulette, craps and blackjack games.

While such a compact could take six months, state gaming officials Monday acknowledged it requires little actual negotiation.

Fairness dictates the Kalispels will be allowed to operate under essentially the same rules as the state’s 13 other tribal casinos with compacts.

“It would be hard for the state to come up with a reason why 50 card tables are allowed for the Muckleshoots and not the Kalispels,” said Amy Patjens, spokeswoman for the state Gambling Commission.

A spokesman for Locke said he signed off on the Airway Heights project while bemoaning Washington’s gaming “arms race.”

“The governor’s not a big fan of gambling, and that made this decision hard for him,” said Everett Billingslea, Locke’s general counsel. “We would like to find a way to get the growth of gambling under control. From what I hear, nobody in the Legislature knows what to do about it.”

But he said the governor did not think it would be appropriate to make an example of the Kalispels.

The biggest question was whether the casino would set a precedent for other tribes to seek gambling operations on land they acquire outside their reservations.

The governor’s office insisted that was unlikely. The bureaucratic process is long and the 238-member tribe’s rugged reservation along the Pend Oreille River presents unique development problems.

Billingslea also said that while 65 percent of the more than 200 comments received by Locke’s office urged rejection of the project, opposition seemed orchestrated by competitors and a vocal minority.

“In this case, the community seems to be in support,” he said.

Billingslea also pointed out that the tribe has agreed to offer the city of Airway Heights a percentage of its winnings to cover infrastructure costs like increased law enforcement.

Dave Bonga, the Kalispels’ manager for planning education and research, said the tribe hadn’t yet established a construction timeline.