East Multnomah County residents should be pleased to know that the question of whether to allow nontribal casinos in Oregon could finally, finally be settled in November.

For the past seven years, Lake Oswego businessmen Bruce Studer and Matthew Rossman have been advancing the idea of a mega-casino at the old greyhound track in Wood Village. We’ve opposed this proposal because it would damage East County’s livability, economy and social structure. But we are nonetheless happy to see Rossman and Studer turn in what appears to be sufficient petition signatures to make the November ballot.

It’s clear that Rossman and Studer aren’t going to give up on their idea until they get a clean, up-or-down decision from voters. The two casino promoters have struggled for several election cycles to get on the statewide ballot. In 2010, they qualified one of two needed measures for that November’s election. It was crushed by voters, 68 to 32 percent.

Rossman and Studer have tweaked their casino plan again for 2012, and they have done a much better job of collecting signatures than they have in the past. As reported in Tuesday’s Outlook, they turned in 157,000 signatures for a statutory measure prior to the July 6 deadline for statewide initiatives. They collected another 217,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment. It will take about a month for the state Elections Division to verify those signatures, but we’re guessing that casino supporters will qualify at least the minimum numbers needed — 74,030 for the statutory measure and 116,284 for the constitutional measure.

One significant change between this year’s initiatives and the previous proposals put forth by Rossman and Studer is that the constitutional amendment would open the door even wider for Nevada-style gambling in Oregon. In the past, Rossman and Studer have proposed having only one privately owned casino in Oregon — the one at the dog track. Now, they are creating a mechanism for multiple privately owned casinos.

This change might be appealing to those who believe Oregon has too few gambling opportunities already. But as the 2010 vote showed, most Oregonians aren’t interested in expanding gambling beyond what’s currently available through tribal casinos and the state lottery.

Rossman and Studer are backed by Clairvest, a Canadian-based company that has invested in other gambling operations in Canada, the United States and overseas. This promises to be a very expensive battle for votes. Opponents of privately owned casinos come into this election with a 2-1 voter advantage, based on the 2010 election results. Oregon tribes, who will provide most of the money to defeat these two measures, are certain to spend whatever it takes to get their message to the voting public.

It’s unfortunate that millions of dollars will be expended on a campaign that has an extremely remote chance of success. But at least this time, we hope the question will be answered for good and East County can dismiss any thoughts of a casino and move onto more realistic topics.