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Federal Government Okays Cowlitz Casino

Posted on December 26th, 2010

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Thursday proves to be a big day for the Cowlitz Tribe as the tribe’s application to operate a casino resort has finally been approved. The Cowlitz is divided into two groups, the Upper Cowlitz or the Tadnapam and the Lower Cowlitz or the Kawlic. The tribe was first acknowledged in 2000 and was only reaffirmed last 2002. The tribe was originally from Washington. The tribe’s proposed casino is a 134,150 square foot casino near La Center.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has announced its approval and has said that the $510 million casino-hotel is likely to create more than 3,000 jobs. Casino operators have always had their eyes on the area. It is an ideal place for a large scale casino as Portland, eyed to be a major market is just several miles away. The casino groundbreaking ceremony is set to about a year or so from its announcement. The casino, bound to be one of the country’s largest, will feature a 250-room hotel, a shopping center, restaurants, a luxurious RV park for 200 recreational vehicles, a parking garage for more than 8,500 vehicles, bars, a tribal cultural center, and more than 3,000 gaming machines.“It’s huge. We had a really great Christmas present,” says Longview based Cowlitz Chairman Bill Iyall. The Department of Interior has released its approval in the form of a land trust; however one of the greatest hurdles for the Cowlitz is their lack of a reservation.

The tribe has asked to establish the reservation with the $510 million hotel and casino complex in mind. Although the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act forbids gambling in lands acquired in trusts, the Cowlitz tribe qualifies as one of the only three exceptions to that law. The law specifically provides for landless tribes with no established reservation under its equal footing exception to be able to operate gambling facilities in lands acquired through trusts. “The news for the Cowlitz people is that we do have the potential for equal footing … and will be able to provide other services that other tribes enjoy. Now we have a huge opportunity.” says Chairman Iyall.

The plans of a grand casino, luxurious hotel, and state of the art gambling system was planned way before the recession hit the country, largely affecting the performance of the country’s casino industry. Iyall says that new measures will be planned by setting up meetings with their development partners, Salishan Molegan. Other partners of the Cowlitz are the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut and the Paskenta Band of the Nomlaki Indians of California. The Connecticut based Mohegan Tribe has been making splashes in the headlines lately for losing millions in their operations. Fears are validated when a reliable source announced that the Mohegan Tribe has an estimated $1.6 Billion in debts. But Iyall is confident that the project will push through. Plans were made to develop the complex in phases, starting with the casino, then the hotel and so on. The whole complex is set to be finished within a five year stretch.

Any plan of this magnitude is never without an opposed party. In this case, a group called the Citizens Against Reservation Shopping (CARS) tops the list. The group claims that additional demands for public services and utilities will congest the area and take away money from local and small time businessmen. “I think it’s going to devastate La Center and I think it’s going to devastate Clark County,” says a councilwoman. But still, optimism is high, as Mayor Pro Temp Larry Smith said “The lay of the land is different now.. With the county at 13.5 percent unemployment versus about 6 percent in 2007, there’s a different dynamic. And there may be a lot of pressure on the city to work on some kind of jobs, even though they’re low-paying jobs.” he says.

With the recession causing a lot of companies to close down, the country’s unemployment rate plummeted. Lawmakers from different localities from across the country scramble to keep the unemployment figures down. Many of these localities have opted to expand their gambling capabilities in order to generate the much needed employment boost as well as a boost in revenue. As a reaction to this country-wide movement, various groups have risen to oppose such measures. While casinos will provide the necessary solution to the many problems plaguing the country, only time will tell whether or not this would be the best path to choose.