Point taken ... for the people of Cascade Locks. However, certain people are planning on getting rich off this casino. Some are the high muckity-mucks of the warm springs tribe (the average tribe members will still depend on reservation welfare, compliments of your tax dollar), but the others are the vegas casino corporations who are using the tribes as a front.
The people of Cascade Locks? They might get a few jobs if they're lucky and the casino doesn't import its own workers. Some tourist dollars might also manage to escape the casino nets and land in their pockets. They'll also get a higher crime rate, so more taxes will be needed for police. You can bet the casino won't be paying for that. More drunk and disorderly people will need to be held somewhere. Will the casino be paying for a new jail? They'll also need to pay for more and better roads. The casino will again leave that up to the tax payers. The freeway offramp for the casino will also come out of the taxpayers pockets. And when the good people of Cascade Locks try to recoup their tax expenditures from the casino, they'll find all sorts of rich tribal attorneys (with law offices in Vegas) to explain all about native entitlements and exemptions.
Again, though, my original point was "screw the warm springs tribes. Let the people of Cascade Locks put up a casino on their own and benefit directly." Then they'd at least be one level higher up on the casino money chain.
Also, has anyone considered a riverboat casino? What would the 'friends' of the gorge say to that? Just a thought.
They can also boost their economy by copying the capitalist spirit north of the river. I hear the meth industry of Stephenson is booming, and it's at least as ethical as a tribal fronted casino.
I think my best idea is to go along with the 'friends' of the gorge and the other busybody environmentalists. If they can get Bonneville Dam torn down to "save our salmon", then the locks will be needed again, and they can all live well by charging a handsome toll on all the traffic going up and down the river. That's as likely to work as the tribal casino.
And I-84 in the Gorge is treacherous about 5 days out of the year...not a big deal.
Once you get east of Troutdale, sure. Before then, the combination of Oregon winter weather and Portland's evil commuter traffic (that light rail was supposed to cure - but didn't) means you're taking your life into your own hands 24-7. And God help you if you get in the way of a school bus carrying a football team from a high school east of the Willamette.
OK...which is it? Is it that you don't like gambling, don't like Indians, or both?