State, Tribe Agree on Cascade Locks Casino

SALEM, OR-Gov. Ted Kulongoski and The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have cut a deal paving the way for the state’s first off-reservation casino, which also will be the one closest to the state’s largest city. The $300-million, 500,000-sf facility will be located 40 miles east of Portland along Interstate 84 in the City of Cascade Locks.The deal, which still needs federal approval, includes the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs passing to the state as much as 17% of its annual profits, which eventually could top $200 million; contributing another 6% to a special charitable fund, earmarked for the Cascade Locks area; and gifting the state 175 acres of environmentally sensitive land near Hood River, a source in Kulongoski’s office tells GlobeSt.com. Warm Springs would also close its existing casino in the state, located at its Kah-Nee-Ta resort in Central Oregon, and be required to use union labor to construct the new casino and provide casino workers with union-like benefits, according to the spokesperson.The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs could get out from under the profit-sharing agreement if Oregon voters approved an initiative allowing for private casinos, according to the source. Payments also could be reduced if the state allows another tribal casino in an area that would take away from the casino’s business or if the state’s lottery gaming were presented in a more casino-like fashion, according to the agreement.Members of the Warm Springs tribes first voted for a casino in the Columbia River Gorge in 2002. Three out of every four voters were in favor of the plan. Two years later the effort took a big step forward when the Confederated Tribes released two designs for the project, one for the Cascade Locks location and another for a location 20 miles further away near the City of Hood River. The Tribes and Kulongoski have been in on-and-off negotiations since that time.Kulongoski theoretically had no say over the Hood River location, but could have prohibited the Cascade Locks location because it is not on tribal land. The Confederated Tribes, of course, wanted the Cascade Locks location because it would make its casino 20 miles closer to Portland than the Grand Ronde Tribe’s Spirit Mountain Casino located west of Salem, which was recently expanded. For the Cascade locks site, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has proposed a low-rise, earth-toned structure with a conference center, Native American museum and a hotel with a swimming pool and spa. For the Hood River location, it proposed a four-story casino without the museum or the hotel on a steep-slope site east of Downtown.The deal, if approved by the federal government, could open the door for other tribes to lobby for off-reservation casinos. Indeed, in response to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs plans, Grand Ronde officials are looking at placing a casino at the Portland Meadows horse racing track in North Portland, though city and state officials have come out against the idea. More plausible and less controllable is an application submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs last spring by Washington State’s Cowlitz Tribe to build a casino at La Center Junction, which is just 15 miles north of Portland city limits. The application, which makes mention of a 48,000-sf casino, is technically a request to put the land into federal trust, which would exempt the property from state and local taxes and local land use regulations and give the tribe the right to have a gaming component on the property.The next step for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs–or, more likely, their attorneys–is to win approval from Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, who has expressed reluctance to approving of-reservation casinos.