The Cowlitz Tribe filed its initial applications for trust land in 2002 and for a mega-casino and resort in 2004. Thanks in large part to a consistent outpouring of community sentiment against the proposal, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has yet to make a final decision.
News on the Cowlitz proposal has been sparse recently, but stories illustrating casino-related problems abound. What follows is one that stands out.
Indian casino expert and author Jeff Benedict calls them the "eight uglies":
Suicide, divorce, foreclosure, bankruptcy, white collar crime, robbery, embezzlement, theft.
According to Benedict, these go hand-in-hand with the presence of out-sized casinos both on and off American Indian reservations.
In Oregon this month, the news media reported two separate cases of employee theft attributed to problem gambling. On October 16, Oregonian reporter Lisa Lednicer reported that 56-year-old Sandra Jena Klingman of Canby pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing more than $519,000 from Paul Schatz Furniture in Tigard, over a two-year period.
The Canby woman had worked for Schatz for 12 years and had no prior criminal record. The newspaper quotes owner Paul Schatz as remarking, "It's a betrayal of trust, that's the hardest thing. That someone we treated like family could look us in the eye every day. But that hasn't undermined our trust in our employees."
On the same day, Norma Orndoff of Klamath Falls was reported by the Herald and News Record to have pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated theft and three counts of identity theft. She was sentenced to three months in jail and 5 years probation for stealing from her employer, a local roofing and siding company.
Both women were ordered to make restitution and undergo gambling treatment.
Studies indicate that problem gambling doubles within 50 miles of a large casino.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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