Gaming negotiations should start soon

Editor,

The current gambling compact between the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes and the State of Montana is due to expire in November 2006. Regardless how anyone feels about gambling, the simple facts are the Class III (video poker and Keno) is regulated, taxed and licensed by our governments.

Income from the taxes on video gaming provides a considerable amount of revenue for local government within Lake County, either County, Tribal or incorporated city governments. The gaming industry provides jobs for a large number of people in Lake County.

Our concern is that as of last week, no date has been set to begin negotiations on a new compact.

These negotiations have historically been complicated and therefor demand several sessions. We hope these negotiating meetings will start at the earliest possible date and a new compact can be signed well before the expiration of the current compact, unlike the past.

Our area is already economically depressed and the impact of once again removing gambling machines from the reservation will serve no purpose, but rather would hurt every resident, whether or not they are directly involved in the gambling industry.

Most members of our organization are bar and/or casino owners and most of us offer video gambling in our establishments. We are obviously concerned about the delay in negotiations because of the prospect of once again losing a large part of our businesses if there are no negotiations or if negotiations fail. We, however, will not be alone in regard to the financial impact of the loss of gambling.

We are writing this open letter to encourage the Tribe and the State of Montana to begin the negotiating process as soon as possible

We also ask members of the city and county governments to encourage early resolution of the contract by contacting the Governor's office and the Tribal Council, voicing their concerns and explaining the impact of the loss of gaming revenue from their budgets.

We need to be able to operate our local governments and or businesses on a level playing field with the rest of the state.

We encourage the Tribe and the State to resolve this issue in a timely manner.

Lake County Tavern Association