Tribes' eye on Moses Pointe worries tavern owners

Though nothing has been agreed upon yet, tavern owners fear dire consequences

MOSES LAKE — The tribes are interested, the city is quiet and the tavern owners are irate.

Otherwise, nothing is for certain in the possibility of a sale of Moses Pointe resorts to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

On April 20, representatives from the tribes, including Joseph Pakootas, chairman of the Colville business Council, and Hank Raymond, grant writer for the planning department of the confederated tribes, met with city officials such as City Manager Joe Gavinski, Mayor Ron Covey and Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado.

The meeting, described by both sides as professional and cordial, was meant to inform city authorities of the tribes' interest in the resort, which Raymond said has been for sale for two and a half years, at a price of $27.7 million.

Spokespersons for the Resorts at Moses Pointe were unavailable for comment.

If the tribes' interest were to materialize into a sale, Raymond said, the tribes would have to come up with a new master plan for the resort, which is what the Moses Pointe property is zoned for.

However, Raymond said, the tribes may choose to change the theme of the resort, or go towards opening a casino, a decision he termed "purely speculative" at this point.

Gavinski agreed, saying the meeting between the tribes and the city had been "very preliminary."

If the tribes chose to build a resort, they would pay taxes like anybody else. If they chose to open a casino, they would have to put the land in trust with the federal government, given that it is off-reservation land, and therefore not pay taxes. The process can only take place after the land is bought, and it could take years.

"There is a logjam across the country," Raymond said. "There are a lot of new tribes applying for recognition and trying to establish casinos in populated areas. Our situation is different."

The difference is the longevity of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which were established in 1872. Nonetheless, the process to turn the land into trust could still take a long time.

Both Gavinski and Alvarado said that interest from a tribe into coming to the area was a first for the city in decades. If and when the land is purchased and a casino is desired, the tribes would ask the city and the county to support their request to the federal government to turn the land into trust land.

Talks between the Resorts at Moses Pointe and the tribes have gone on for a while, Raymond said, but the tribes are still interested.

"We are hoping that by summer we might have something on the table," he said

Key to the tribes' interest is to have the support of the community to which they are arriving. If they were to come, they would likely to hold meetings with the community, answer people's questions and try to abate their concerns.

While Gavinski has said it's premature to worry too much yet, tavern owners have already expressed their concerns about having a casino around, especially one that does not pay taxes. Calling it "unfair competition" they met earlier this month at Papa's Casino to discuss their position with regards to the possible newcomers.

Tavern owners are concerned about a tribal casino bringing types of gambling they can't offer, namely slot machines, which they say is mostly what people want to do when they come to an establishment of that kind. Also, they point out the $1.5 million they paid in gambling tax receipts they paid in the past five years, and say the tribes would pay nothing.

Gavinski said he did not know if the city should be worried about a lack of property taxes, either, saying that it was too early to tell. Nevertheless, he added that Covey had asked him to inquire about the relationship between tribal casinos in off-reservation lands and the cities hosting them.

To Gavinski, there are pros and cons to a possible tribal establishment coming to town. Besides the loss of taxation, there would be a loss of control when it comes to building permits and land use. Among the pros, there would be the arrival of additional development to the area and the fact that the city would not be required to provide other services such as police and fire safety.

Tavern owners disagree, saying that the consequences would be dire, not just as far as taxes is concerned, especially for those offering some sort of gambling, from blackjack to pull tabs.

Altogether, Papa's Casino, the Porterhouse, Sporty's, Ram's Ripple, Danny's Tavern, Michael's On The Lake, The Lucky Break and the Hang Out, employ nearly 300 people and have a payroll of nearly $3 million.

Dick Lowry, the owner of Sporty's, said that many of these business would go under if confronted with competition from a tribal establishment.

"We are all opposed to it," he said, referring to the possible arrival of the tribes. Bruce Russell, from Papa's Casino agreed, saying that a tribal casino would probably be the end of his establishment.

Furthermore, Lowry attacked the desire of the tribes to come to Grant County months after they opposed Tim Eyman's initiative that would have given slot machine operating rights to non-tribal establishments.

"They fought the expansion of gambling, spent $7 million on it," Lowry said. "Now they want to come here."

Raymond said that there were highly positive aspects to what the tribes were doing.

If Moses Pointe goes under, that is a failed business, and what the tribes are trying to do is to save it, he said.

"We are going to be using a lot of local services," he said of the tribes, which own three other off-reservation casinos. "In other areas where we have operated casinos, we have made a major impact."