Get facts on proposed casino

While the Spokane Tribe has been busy “lambasting” the increasingly broad-based opposition to their proposed off-reservation casino, they omit key facts explaining why business leaders, elected officials and citizens are opposed.

Tribe: The Federal Aviation Administration ruled the casino wouldn’t interfere with navigation at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Fact: That ruling has absolutely no bearing on the issue of encroachment – the amount of noise, traffic population density – around Fairchild, which will put our most vital economic asset at risk.

Tribe: They need this casino to support tribal members.

Fact: They want this casino. The tribe has two existing casinos they can expand any way they see fit, just as the Coeur d’Alene Tribe did. They can develop other successful enterprises on their ancestral grounds that do not involve gaming.

Tribe: The opposition to their casino is only a few businesses in some sort of collusion with the Kalispel Tribe.

Fact: Citizens Against Casino Expansion represents industries across the region. Greater Spokane Incorporated is opposed. Nineteen elected officials have written the Bureau of Indian Affairs in opposition. One is in favor.

There is now broad-based opposition that the Spokane Tribe is unsuccessfully trying to minimize. For the real facts, go to www.citizensagainstcasino expansion.com.

Irv Zakheim

Citizens Against Casino Expansion

Spokane