Citizens Against Reservation Shopping (CARS) is urging the Department of the Interior to consider a new direction for the proposed Cowlitz casino-resort project: Encourage the tribe to locate it in Lewis County.

This project?outside the Cowlitz Tribe's aboriginal homeland?would be the largest casino on the West Coast. It would have severe negative impacts on Interstate 5, on the already jammed Columbia River Bridge and on Clark County?s healthy economy.

Lewis County, about 50 miles to the north, would be an excellent alternative. A casino in Lewis County:

• would bring in more than enough revenue to meet the tribe's needs, according to an economic analysis.
• would provide much-needed jobs for a county whose unemployment rate was 8.0 percent in December. (Clark County?s was 5.2 percent.)
• would be in the heart of the tribe?s true aboriginal homeland and near the greatest concentration of tribe members.

For more reasons why a Lewis County casino is a good idea, see our newly updated home page, which now includes:

• the case for the alternative site
• a CARS video on the benefits of a Lewis County site
• a brief comparison of Clark County and Lewis County demographics
• an economic analysis of an alternate site

You can help by sending a letter to the Cowlitz Tribe (1055 9th Ave, Suite B, Longview, WA 98632) suggesting that it refocus its casino development efforts on Lewis County or by writing the Department of the Interior and asking that it encourage the tribe to refocus its casino plans on Lewis County.

The validity of the agreement signed in 2004 by Clark County commissioners and the Cowlitz Tribe is in question and most likely will be reviewed within the next month or so by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearing Board.

If the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is found invalid, it will have serious ramifications for the tribe?s Environmental Impact Statement and other applications, which rely heavily on commitments outlined in the MOU.

For more information, see the MOU fact sheet.

You can read the Resolution and Disclaimer, MOU and Supplemental MOU in the "Local" section of our Library of documents.

Stories that ran in The Columbian and The Oregonian in January quoted a regional Bureau of Indian Affairs official saying that the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Cowlitz project a) would be completed by the end of last month and b) would not be released to the public until after the Department of the Interior (DOI) had determined whether to take the land at the La Center junction into trust.

Subsequent articles said otherwise?a DOI official said that legally the Final EIS must be made public before a decision is made, and an attorney for the Cowlitz Tribe told The Columbian that the federal government will likely not make a decision about the proposed casino project until February 2008 or later.

Read a synopsis of the unfolding story.

The Washington State Gambling Commission (WSGC) and Gov. Chris Gregoire approved a compact with the Spokane Tribe earlier this month that most likely will lead to an increase in tribal gaming statewide.

The compact gives the Spokane Tribe permission to operate up to five casinos with as many as 4,700 video gambling machines and allows it to pursue an off-reservation casino. The state is expected to update the compacts of the other 20 compacted tribes, to keep their treatment equitable.

The governor?s chief of staff, Tom Fitzsimmons, told The News Tribune of Tacoma that he estimates the total number of gambling machines at tribal casinos will increase from 18,225 to 25,000 statewide. It is expected to take a year before the compact would be ratified by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Tribal gaming in Washington has been on a rapid rise since 1999, when it represented 23 percent of the state?s gaming revenues with an estimated $162.4 million in net gaming receipts.

In 2006, tribal gaming brought in 65 percent of all gaming revenues with $1.192 billion in net gaming receipts. (Charts are available at the WSGC Web site.)

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Cowlitz Tribe?s proposed casino-resort says the project would add 3,000 video gambling machines. The Cowlitz Tribe started negotiations on its compact Aug. 23, 2002, but later put them on hold. On Sept. 28, 2004, it resumed negotiations, according to the WSGC Web site.

Read The News Tribune story.

Read an Associated Press story on the compact.

Gambling is a problem for one out of every 28 California adults?nearly 1 million people, according to a Jan. 30 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The article reports on a major study involving a survey of more than 7,000 adults that was recently released by the state?s Office of Problem and Pathological Gambling.

California?s gambling industry includes nearly 60 tribal casinos. Washington has 24.