Editorial: Government should fold on casino proposal

A proposal by the Spokane Tribe for a $400 million casino is a gamble best not taken.

Although understandably aggrieved by the success of the Kalispel Tribe’s Northern Quest Resort & Casino within their ancestral lands, the Spokanes cannot make the case for economic hardship the Kalispels did a decade ago. Nor can the region let the light and traffic from a new casino put at risk Fairchild Air Force Base.

The base employs roughly 5,000. The Spokanes’ casino might employ as many as 3,600 after more than a decade of build-out.

Fairchild has survived two Department of Defense reassessments of the nation’s military facilities. The base escaped closure partly because local officials have diligently scotched any development that might compromise its operations. With reductions in defense spending possible as budget talks continue, Fairchild’s future cannot be taken for granted.

Spokane Tribe Vice Chairman Mike Spencer dismisses the claim the casino might harm the base, noting the Federal Aviation Administration found no threat. Base officials have been noncommittal.

If there is a threat, Spencer says, the tribe is willing to modify its plans to nullify the danger, as it has by downsizing the project’s hotel tower.

In letters to the U.S. Department of Interior, several state and local officials cite other concerns; what might be called casino creep, for one, and doubts the Spokanes have focused all the energies they might on other development options available their 150,000-acre reservation northwest of Spokane.

The department has approved only five off-reservation casinos, including Northern Quest, in 20 years. The Kalispels successfully argued their tiny reservation near Usk offered little hope of prosperity for the tribe’s 400-plus members. The Spokanes have timber operations, which are suffering during the industry’s downturn, and recreational assets like the Spokane River and Lake Roosevelt.

Washington officials, including Auditor Brian Sonntag and Secretary of State Sam Reed, warn that approval of the project could trigger a stack of applications by other tribes anxious to put casinos close to, if not in, the state’s major cities. Many tribes, the Spokanes among them, have been forced to close casinos too far away from customers.

The Spokanes argue their casino will grow the gaming pie, not take a slice from the Kalispels. The tribe’s potential partners in the development would not continue to be interested if they did not foresee a profit, Spencer says.

But the recession has put pressure on the entire gaming industry, from Las Vegas on down. The Nevada city has begun to break out of its slump, but revenue for casinos in Atlantic City has fallen 36 months in a row. The biggest casino in North America, owned by the Mashantucket Pequots in Connecticut, had to refinance $1.4 billion in debt after a 2009 default.

Spencer expects the Interior Department to publish its findings within the next 30 days, with 45 days for comments to follow. If the department ignores the criticism and follows the law, the Spokanes will be winners, he says.

Maybe. But many others will be losers.