Why you should care

This region needs to ask itself, what is the cost of a missed opportunity? Because that’s what placing a casino-resort on this land would be. It would take up space in an area that might otherwise attract any number of businesses or industries that could have a beneficial impact on our area—businesses that would actually create something—products and services, businesses that could draw revenues from outside our region, businesses that would not by their very nature increase crime, increase addiction, increase bankruptcies. Putting a casino at the La Center junction would be a missed opportunity for better possibilities.

The land is part of “The Discovery Corridor,” an area that the Columbia River Economic Development Council has designated a potentially lucrative growth area. The corridor runs along Interstate 5 from Salmon Creek to La Center, a location that could provide space, infrastructure, access and amenities for incoming businesses. (The Port of Vancouver and Columbia Business Park have been recognized, for the same reasons, as other “nodes of growth.”)

Why is such an area important? Because it can be used to draw industries that will help the region achieve “a high-wage economy.” The average Clark County wage is $33,100, not enough to purchase a house in the Portland-Vancouver area. As CREDC puts it, our goal should be to focus “economic development energy on emerging industry clusters that depend on a knowledge-based workforce; understanding that the dynamics of the marketplace will create supporting businesses.” A casino, with jobs averaging $28,000 a year, does nothing to contribute to a high-wage economy.

Once the 152 acres at the La Center interchange go into trust, they are not coming out. Once a casino-resort is built on this land, it is not going to be unbuilt. There is no trial period for this project during which we can see if a Las Vegas-style casino is a fit for our area, whether it will bolster our economy or bust it. And past experience shows that a casino rarely has an invigorating effect.

Economist Earl Grinols has found that even with conservative estimates, gambling fails a cost-benefit test with a $3 to $1 ratio, costs to benefits. He writes that the introduction of casino-style gambling to a county of 100,000 adults would “create additional social costs of $14.3 million annually and social benefits of $4.6 million.”

Moreover, other research shows that:
• 27 out of 57 U.S. counties with casinos have experienced job losses.
• The bankruptcy filing rate in U.S. counties with casinos is 18 percent higher than in counties without casinos.
• Violent crime increases up to 13 percent in counties that have had casinos for at least four years.

If this land is taken into trust and is developed as a casino-resort, we will only be left to wonder what might have been.