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KELSO, Wash. — A gaming floor bigger than a Wal-Mart? Dozens of video lottery machines? An adjoining 250-room hotel? Maybe even free food and smoking while you gamble?
And all of it 30 minutes south of Kelso?
Just tell Jim Cunningham when.
"The casinos in this town," Cunningham grumbled, "they're not real casinos. They're cardrooms."
Hunched in Kelso's Highlander Lounge next to a 25-cent video bowling game, Cunningham said he isn't a big gambler. But he'd definitely visit a casino like that from time to time, he said. It'd be a better deal for his money than playing pull-tabs in a local bar.
Words like those strike fear in the hearts of some local business owners. If the federal government approves the Cowlitz Indians' proposal for a reservation and casino/hotel/restaurant complex near La Center, they say other gambling venues — even some bars, who draw a tidy profit from pull-tabs — may as well cash in their chips.
"Once they break ground, I just hope I have either sold or am out of business," said Highlander owner Jim Springer, whose $3 million Kelso business includes a bowling alley, restaurant, lounge, laser tag and other games. "I do not believe we can survive it."
But the $500 million development proposed near La Center by the Cowlitz Tribe would make winners of other businesses in the region, some say.
"If approved and if built, it'll add 10,000 car trips to the I-5 corridor," said Rick Winsman, president and CEO of the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce. "If we can even be successful to the extent of getting 10 percent of those folks off the Interstate ... that's 1,000 people per day that we have a chance to get into our community to buy gas, get a meal."
The U.S. Department of the Interior probably won't make a decision on the casino until next year. If it approves the project, Winsman said, the chamber likely would hire a marketing specialist to give local businesses tips on advertising to casino visitors.
Cindy Hooper, general manager for Kelso's Red Lion Hotel, said she would welcome the casino, which would feature a hotel 50 percent larger than hers.
"We need more destination points in Southwest Washington," she said. "We're really positioned to be a friendly competitor to the casino, but also, the casino will become an attraction."
Kelly Gwinn, the Red Lion's director of sales and marketing, said the region suffers from a shortage of hotel rooms — Cowlitz County has about 1,000, she said — and that a big neighbor to the south would broaden the local market for business conferences.
"Any time we can get a bigger hotel, then it helps to bring bigger conferences to our area," Gwinn said.
The Cowlitz hope their casino could itself be the site of some conferences. Once it's fully built, the plan earmarks almost 150,000 square feet for convention space.
Whether the casino flies or not, said Winsman, the local economy should be prepared to adapt. "We have to be geared to take advantage of it," said Winsman, "irrespective of what our own personal feelings are. ... the fact of the matter is, it's out of our control."
Darlene Johnson, legislative chair for the Woodland Chamber of Commerce, begs to differ. She doubts casino visitors would enjoy Woodland's traditional destinations, such as the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens.
"Gamblers go to gamble. They're not going to get up from gambling at the table to go look at the lilac garden," Johnson said
This week, Woodland's chamber, which officially opposes the casino, persuaded city officials to send a letter emphasizing its concerns about a casino's effect on Woodland's housing market, police and fire services, business climate and schools.
The business owners with the direst outlook may be the casino's most direct competitors — those that make money from gambling.
Eric Nelson, a Las Vegas investor who owns Cleopatra's Wild Grizzly Casino in Kelso, said he will approach the city in October to again request a tax break, as he did in 2004. A new sliding tax scale, he said, would protect him from competition with a reservation casino, which would be exempt from state and local taxes.
"If they don't make an adjustment in the taxes, I'm sure there'll be severe layoffs," Nelson said. "We'll do less, and be less profitable."
The owner of Longview's Cadillac Ranch Casino could not be reached for comment.
At the Highlander, Springer said 10 percent of his revenue and a quarter of his profit comes from pull-tabs, the only form of gambling allowed in most Washington bars. The Lucky Eagle casino, operated by the Chehalis tribe 50 miles north of Kelso, walloped Springer's income when it began offering video gambling in 1999.
"We lost a third of our pull-tab revenues and 25 percent of our lounge revenues, and that money's never come back," he said. The Cowlitz casino would be another hit, he said.
Sitting in the Highlander's lounge Wednesday with a few pull-tabs of her own, Springer's bar manager Diana Armstead agreed.
"It's on the weekend that it's really bad," she said. About 70 percent of the lounge regulars play pull-tabs, Armstead estimated.
"If they can't smoke, they need something to do with their hands," she said.
Not every business that makes money from gamblers anticipates trouble, though.
"Our patrons who are pull-tab players aren't travelers to casinos at all," Kat Stoken, a bartender at the Shamrock Tavern on 15th Avenue in Longview.
Other business that might compete with the casino complex aren't sure what impact the development would have. Of those, though, many seem prepared for — or resigned to — a roll of the dice.
"I guess it could go either way," said Pam Fierst, general manager of Ramada Limited in Longview.
Fierst's corporate customers, she said, are in town to visit Longview businesses, and wouldn't be likely to go elsewhere. On the other hand, a casino hotel might compete with one of her selling points: a meeting place between Portland and Seattle.
Still, Fierst said, the hotel that the Lucky Eagle Casino added in Rochester last year hasn't affected her traffic, though some had said it would.
Sirhan Charan, owner and manager of the Kalama River Inn, said a big hotel 15 miles to his south wouldn't threaten his business.
"They are too far from us," he said. "People don't travel too far. Ten, 20, 15 miles, you know? They want to stay close."
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