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Tribes blast casino report
Message was posted: 10:41 Oct 14th, 2006

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Casino news from http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/ WARM SPRINGS — Tribal sparring over casinos continued this week with the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs issuing a scathing response to a Grand Ronde tribe’s report earlier this week that looked negatively on a potential Hood River casino site, calling it “flawed and deceitful.” The Oregon Restaurant Associated has also promoted the report in a television ad campaign. “Two of the most powerful special interest groups in Oregon have joined forces to destroy the truth in order to squash competition for gaming in the Portland Metropolitan area,” said Louie Pitt of the Warm Springs Tribes in a Thursday release. “The Grand Ronde own the most profitable casino in Oregon with authority to operate 2,000 gambling machines. The Oregon Restaurant Association members operate nearly 5,000 gambling machines in the metropolitan area, so paying more than $100,000 to deliver a report that pretends to analyze a proposed competitive alternative near Hood River, would be enough to greet its conclusions with skepticism, even if it weren’t filled with so many flaws.” Pitt challenged the two groups and their consultants to defend their “sham report” before a town hall audience of community members most affected by the proposals in Hood River and Cascade Locks. An official gederal government study of the environmental impacts related to the casino proposal and its alternatives, due to be released for public comment by the Bureau of Indian Affairs by January 2007, Pitt added. Pitt blasted the proposal for basing its findings on a “made up” casino, saying its 600,000-square foot casino floor is more than twice the size of the largest in the world — and seven times bigger than that proposed for the Bridge of the Gods Columbia River Resort and Casino in Cascade Locks. Pitt also said they made up traffic access road options and phony legal criteria to criticize the Warm Springs’ exercise of governmental power over the tribal site. Pitt accused the Grand Ronde of trying to hijack the comprehensive Federal Draft Environmental Impact Study before it is released for public review, and divert attention from the alternative casino site at Cascade Locks, which is preferred by the Warm Springs.