Bad bet for Oregon.

Byline: The Register-Guard

As any experienced chess player knows, what appears to be an attractive move in the short term often turns out to be disastrous.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski's decision to allow the Warm Springs tribes to build the state's first off-reservation casino in the Columbia River Gorge community of Cascade Locks has all the earmarks of such a move.

In the short term, it has substantial appeal. If the project wins federal approval, the state's compact with the tribes would avert development of a casino on environmentally sensitive land near Hood River in the heart of the gorge. It would guarantee the state as much as 17 percent of the new casino's gross gambling profits, which could be used for higher education and other state programs. And it would provide a welcome economic boost for both the Warm Springs tribe and Cascade Locks.

But in the long term, Kulongoski's decision is a miscalculation. It's a precedent that could result in large casinos springing up in metropolitan areas throughout the state and intensify the state's already-raging addiction to gambling revenues. Oregonians, including members of other tribes that compete for shares of the state's finite gambling market, will come to regret this decision.

The U.S. Interior Department, which has the final say, should reject the Cascade Locks proposal.

Under the agreement, the Warm Springs tribes would build a new casino and convention complex that would be the largest in the state and that would be located a short freeway jaunt from Portland. Tribal leaders, who plan to close the confederation's existing casino near the town of Warm Springs, project the new complex will draw 3 million patrons a year. A glitzy new casino complex near Portland would draw upon a market that has been dominated by the Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, which is about 60 miles southwest of Portland and is currently the state's biggest Indian gaming center.

Not surprisingly, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde opposed the Warm Springs proposal. The confederation already says it will seek state approval for a new casino at another location closer to Portland, possibly at Portland Meadows racetrack. While the governor has said he opposes such a move and retains legal authority to reject any proposal he deems not to be in the state's best interests, his approval of the new Warm Springs compact makes it much harder for him to reject a similar proposal by the Grand Ronde.

So it begins: One tribal group moves to a site that gives it competitive advantage. Other tribes, free to consider nonreservation sites that offer access to larger and more lucrative markets, counter with their own proposals for newer, larger casinos in prime urban locations throughout the state.

The siting of native casinos on nontribal lands is a genie that should remain in the lamp. The federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's limitation of tribal gambling to Indian lands (only a few tribes nationwide have won federal permission for off-reservation gambling) has helped keep the growth of Indian casinos from being even more explosive than it has been nationwide.

As evidenced by the imminent addition of electronic slots to the Oregon Lottery, the state is already losing altitude fast on the slippery slope of legalized gambling. What's next? Will Kulongoski jettison Oregon's long-standing one-tribe, one-casino rule in exchange for a sweetheart deal that gives the state the money it needs to keep cops on the streets or teachers in the class- rooms?

The most compelling argument in favor of the new Warm Springs compact is the tribes' agreement not to build a casino on environmentally sensitive tribal property in Hood River. But a 500,000-square-foot casino in Cascade Locks - and the traffic it will generate - will still have significant impacts on air and water quality in the gorge, even if it's located in an established industrial park.

And, yes, the new casino promises to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues for state programs, possibly even more as other tribes negotiate similar agreements with the state. But at some point, Oregonians and their governor must face up to their state's unhealthy and increasingly Nevadaesque reliance on gambling to bankroll state government.

The governor's agreement with the Warm Springs tribes is a bad bet for this state. The federal government should do Oregonians a favor and reject off-reservation gambling at Cascade Locks.