The Coquille Indian Tribe of Oregon wants to build a second small casino in Medford along Interstate 5 and the Cow Creek Tribe of Umpqua Band of Indians is criticizing it every step along the way.
Unlike its first casino, this one would be a Class II facility. I would employ about 200.
Cow Creek CEO Michael Rondeau last week published an article called “Tribe Doubles Down on Casino” in the Medford Mail Tribune. Rondeau declared that the project’s plans are “suspect from the start” and would unalterably change the landscape and open the way for Las Vegas style casinos “all over the state.” He added, “Once this gate is opened, it will never be closed.” He claims the Coquille casino will be “a mega casino the size of those in Las Vegas.”
The 1,000-member Coquille tribe currently operates the Mill Casino in North Bend. However, seven years ago the tribe applied to the Department of the Interior to build a second casino on 2.43 acres it purchased there, where the former Roxy Ann Lanes and Kim’s Restaurant once operated.
It owns a total of 45 acres in Medford. About half of that is the Bear Creek golf course.
Not by coincidence, the Cow Creek Tribe operates the Seven Feathers Casino and Resort in Canyonville, 70 miles away, the closest casino to the site. Seven Feathers is the second most profitable casino in the state.
The Cow Creek Tribe and some local and state elected officials, including U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Jackson County Commissioners and the City of Medford, claim that the second casino violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, however Coquille spokesman Ray Doering commented by email, “In fact, the Coquille Tribe’s compact [which was signed in 1995] with the State of Oregon and signed by previous governors clearly states that the State has no jurisdiction over any Class II gaming conducted by the Tribe.”
Doering explained that the tribe wanted to open the second casino, in Jackson County, because about 100 tribal members live there. “We saw an opportunity to do an economic development project,” he said. This land is about 180 miles distant from the tribe’s reservation in Coos Bay.
According to Doering “The Coquille Tribe’s casino plans have not changed, nor have they grown larger.” His email continued, “The casino is still planned for the 2.4-acre site that is subject to the federal land-into-trust process. The remaining land is available for the development of other, non-casino, entertainment and hospitality options – not to build a Las Vegas-sized casino.”
The Coquille have also been criticized for wanting to build a second casino when all of the tribes have agreed to be limited to one casino. This is a reference to former Governor John Kitzhaber’s often expressed “one tribe, one casino” policy. And it was the policy of his administration, not a law.
The governor admitted as much when in a 2013 letter the Bureau of Indian Affairs he wrote “as a State, we have consistently attempted to strike a balance between tribal pursuit of economic enterprise and a check on the expansion of gambling in our State.”
There is some question as to whether the Coquille can open a second question. Which is why the tribe is waiting for a decision on its application from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The director of the bureau, Tara Sweeney, will make that decision.
