We don’t believe neighborhood destruction should be an objective of the Oregon Lottery.

Yet, the vice-ridden “Lottery Row” at Jantzen Beach has been allowed to persist, despite the documented problems it causes and the harm it does to the surrounding area.

The Portland Tribune has reported on Lottery Row since 2010, and lottery officials have vowed in the past to move this issue to the “front-burner.” Now, however, the Lottery Commission, which is appointed by the governor, is apparently ready to put the needs of a handful of gambling retailers above those of the neighborhood.

As we reported on July 19, commissioners have nixed proposed regulations that would have allowed no more than half the retailers in a shopping center to host lottery terminals. At Lottery Row, all 12 establishments in a single strip shopping center have the maximum number of video lottery terminals — six apiece. This concentration of gambling devices has resulted in a mini-casino that also has attracted drug dealing and other crime.

Lottery Row is a seedy nuisance that exists only because the lottery wants to capitalize on the gambling addictions of Washington state residents. They cross the Columbia River in search of easy gambling as well as cheap cigarettes these retailers sell in order to fulfill Oregon’s requirement that at least half their revenue come from something other than gambling.

We cannot imagine that any neighborhood in Oregon would want to be home to a scuzzy gambling emporium, but when Lottery Director Larry Niswender proposed a modest change to the rules, lottery commissioners balked. Among their concerns was the investment retailers have made in buying up these establishments.

We wonder if commissioners also considered the investments neighbors have made in their own properties and community.

The lottery actually has a regulation on the books — it was adopted in 2002 — that gives the lottery director authority to keep retailers from cloning their stores to get added video lottery terminals. Such cloning is exactly what happened at Jantzen Beach.

Lottery Row should not have been allowed in the first place. Lottery commissioners should reconsider their stance on this issue and think of the greater good when Niswender returns with yet-another proposal for limiting the number of gambling establishments in a single strip center.

This cluster of retailers at Jantzen Beach has created a den of addiction — to gambling, tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Is that what the Oregon Lottery truly wants to encourage?