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Wallace, ID may be ready to gamble – Town, state senator hope legalized gaming would help boost economy, attract tourists

Wallace could become the same kind of tourist mecca as Deadwood, S.D. — if Idaho lawmakers would just let the historic Silver Valley town have legal gambling.

Betsy Z. Russell
Staff writer

That’s the idea behind a concept being studied by Osburn Sen. Marti Calabretta and enthusiastically backed by Wallace’s mayor, Ron Garitone.

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http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=122303&ID=s1459835&cat=section.idaho

"We’re kinda stuck up here in the Bitterroot Mountains, nestled in here all by ourselves. We’re a depressed mining camp," Garitone said. "We rely a lot on tourism and things of that nature. But I do think the gambling would be a clean, easy commodity in our valley to help with tax relief and wherever else it’s needed."

He added, "Wallace would be the perfect town in Idaho to try this."

In Deadwood, local boosters picked up on the historic western town’s gambling history, and formed a group called "Deadwood U Bet" to try to reverse the town’s economic slide and save deteriorating historic buildings. South Dakota voters agreed in 1989 to allow limited-stakes gambling in the town, and now it has more than 80 historic casinos and a brisk tourist trade.

The Deadwood Visitors Bureau lures tourists with the slogan, "Get back to the past, in an entire city on the Historic Register."

Wallace has some of the same appeal, Garitone said. "There was gambling in Wallace many years ago when the mining camps were going. … It was here, it was all over."

Idaho currently doesn’t allow local-option gambling. The only legal gambling in the state is through the state lottery; parimutuel betting on horse racing and simulcasts of races elsewhere; and on tribal reservations where compacts with the state define the limited scope of casino offerings. That casino gambling can include slot-machine-like video lottery terminals, but no card or table games, such as poker, blackjack or roulette.

Calabretta isn’t making any promises. Idaho’s conservative Legislature has been so staunchly opposed to expanding gambling that senators refused to sign onto Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s negotiated agreement with the state’s Indian tribes. That forced the tribes to run a successful ballot initiative to clearly legalize their existing casinos.

"I’m always pretty frank with people about the fact that we can just begin the discussion," Calabretta said. But, she said, "Anything has a chance."

She noted that she helped carry legislation a decade ago to allow liquor licenses for historic bars that were outside city limits, and to legalize the use of peyote by Native Americans in religious ceremonies. Both faced long odds in the conservative Legislature, but both passed.

Calabretta said in her North Idaho district, there’s gambling close at hand both across the state line in Montana, and on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

"So it’s not like people here need opportunities to gamble, but it is sort of the sense that we’re losing business to other states, other communities, based on not being able to offer this entertainment along with the skiing, the golf courses, and all the other things that are being put together here in the Silver Valley," she said.

Among the options Calabretta is considering for possible legislation this year are local-option gambling statewide, by local vote, and a special historic gambling district for Wallace, modeled after Deadwood.

"It’s an extension of the Bunker Hill site and the notion of how do you regroup after the mine closure," Calabretta said. "There’s been a tremendous effort already made along the lines of the gondola, golf. … This is just another entertainment piece."

Garitone said legislation should give Wallace residents an opportunity to vote on the idea, and shouldn’t allow the gambling unless two-thirds of voters want it. "If they said no, then I would agree with them, that’s fine," he said.

He also favors giving the special, historic gambling district a limited, five-year trial, then evaluating whether it should be continued. The mayor said he hoped some of the revenues could go to property tax relief.

"In Deadwood, S.D. it’s nothing but a positive thing," he said. "It’s enhanced their community considerably. It benefits all residents, even us non-gamblers, in tax relief and benefits."

Gambling revenue in Deadwood has funded city government, infrastructure improvements and historic preservation, and the old mining town now claims to be the largest historic restoration project in the country.

South Dakota voters initially authorized only bets of up to $5 in Deadwood in their 1989 vote, but in 2000, the limit was raised to $100.

The Deadwood Visitors Bureau proclaims in its promotional materials, "Playing for money is as much a part of Deadwood history as prospecting for gold."

•Betsy Z. Russell can be reached toll-free at (866) 336-2854, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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