Casino backers give up, for now

Wood Village mayor ready to move on

By Shannon Wells

Pamplin Media Group, May 5, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (17 Reader comments)

Citing timing and events beyond their control, two Lake Oswego businessmen say they will not pursue signature gathering to place a Wood Village casino proposal before voters in the November election.

Investment adviser Bruce Studer and lawyer Matt Rossman announced Friday, May 2, that they will not take the next step – gathering more than 100,000 signatures to put a ballot measure before state voters – in their plan to establish an entertainment-gambling complex at the former Multnomah Kennel Club site next to Wood Village Town Center.

A ballot measure would let Oregon voters decide if the promoters – and their thus-far unnamed financial backers – could develop the state’s only privately owned casino facility. Native American tribes run commercial casinos at locations scattered through the state.

In a statement, Studer and Rossman said controversy surrounding two tribes’ efforts to establish new casinos in Oregon and Washington made the timing of the ballot measure less desirable.

The Warm Springs tribe wants to develop a casino at Cascade Locks, and the Cowlitz tribe hopes to establish a gaming center on land near Interstate 5 in La Center, Wash. The projects have met with opposition on legal, ethical and environmental grounds.

“While we were hopeful that we could proceed with our signature-gathering efforts this year, we realized that the pending tribal casino proposals … need to be vetted through the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision-making process before we can proceed successfully,” Studer said.

The unsettled nature of the proposals creates a less-than ideal atmosphere for introducing another casino-oriented project, they added.

“Our campaign team believes that the proper timing to pursue approval of our commercial taxpaying casino … should commence once Oregonians know the outcome of the La Center and (Cascade Locks) casino proposals.”

Wood Village Mayor Dave Fuller, who Studer and Rossman had involved in the project’s planning stages, said he had not communicated with them in about two weeks and read about the latest development on the newspaper’s Web site. He is less inclined to focus on the plan at this point.

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