People Against a Casino Town
News of Interest
Opposition to casino in Portland, Oregon

  • 11/29/07 - Portland casino in the works - The promoters filed three prospective initiatives last week. One would change the state constitution, which now bans casinos, to allow one commercial casino if authorized by the people through an initiative.

  • 12/27/06 - Portland casino promoters won't release names of financial backers - Good For Oregon Committee to push measures which would repeal Oregon’s ban on non-tribal casinos and allow a casino at the site of the former Multnomah Greyhound Park. If voters approve the measures, gaming operations could begin as soon as Aug. 1, 2009.

  • 6/19/06 - Push to build non-tribal casino in Gresham postponed  - The push to build a non-tribal casino in the Gresham area is on hold.  Backers of the proposal announced Monday that they will wait until 2008 to put the issue before voters. The entrepreneurs who want to build the casino at the site of the old Multnomah Kennel Club said they ran out of time to gather enough signatures to place the issue on the november ballot. "We are very pleased with the accomplishments of this campaign. The Attorney General and the Oregon Supreme Court approved our measures. We will capitalize on these historic rulings and re-file the measures for the 2008 general election," said Matt Rossman, co-chief petitioner. The petitioners say the casino would create more than 10,000 new jobs. 
  • 06/09/06 - Supreme Court approves casino initiative  - Ballot measures seeking to turn the defunct Multnomah Kennel Club into a casino have been approved by the Oregon Supreme Court, supporters said Thursday.
  • 05/23/06 - Casino plan still hung up - Supporters of the state’s first nontribal casino must now jump a new hurdle to qualify their proposal for the November general election. The titles of their two ballot measures to build a casino in Wood Village were challenged before the Oregon Supreme Court last week. The appeal could drag on into early June, giving supporters less than a month to collect slightly more than 100,000 voter signatures for the Oregon constitutional amendment they need to build the casino. The supporters must also collect slightly more than 75,000 signatures to site the casino at the former Multnomah Kennel Club dog racing track. “It’s going to be very tight, but we’re still hopeful the Supreme Court will approve the titles in time for us to make it,” said Matt Rossman, a Lake Oswego lawyer who is sponsoring the measures with his neighbor, financial consultant Bruce Studer. The appeal was filed by the chiefs of the Siletz, Coquille and Klamath Indian tribes. The Siletz and Coquille tribes already operate casinos on reservation lands, and the Klamath tribe recently applied to build one on nonreservation land near Wilsonville. (5/23/06, PDX Update, Portland Tribune)
  • 05/12/06 - Private casino's a bad bet for all - Matthew Rossman and Bruce Studer propose to build one of the nation’s largest casinos on the site of the former Multnomah Greyhound Park in Wood Village

  • 05/09/06 - Oregon casino developers want to change state constitutionThe Oregon Constitution currently prohibits nontribal casinos in the state. Last week the Oregon secretary of state’s office approved titles for the three ballot measures submitted by Studer and Rossman that would amend the Constitution and direct the Legislature to authorize a casino at the closed dog track.
  • 04/08/05 - Mayor and governor want gambling to stop short of city limits - Casino encroachment on Portland doesn’t come just from Cascade Locks. The Cowlitz tribe wants to build a casino at Exit 16 on Interstate 5 in northern Clark County, 25 miles from downtown. And the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, operators of Spirit Mountain, Oregon’s largest casino and its top tourist destination, is exploring a casino-hotel-racetrack complex at Portland Meadows.  “You have to have a community that’s willing,” said MardiLyn Saathoff, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s general counsel. “We’re not going to negotiate with a tribe that doesn’t have that.”
  • 03/24/06 - Oregon casino ballot measure rejected - The state rejected a package of ballot measures Thursday that could have allowed construction of the state's first non-Indian casino.  The two Lake Oswego entrepreneurs backing the project, proposed for east Multnomah County, said they would rewrite the measures and try to qualify them for the November ballot. But critics said they doubt whether financial consultant Bruce Studer and attorney Matthew Rossman have enough time to get any casino measures before voters this year.

  • 01/15/05 - Pair seek OK for huge casino near Portland - Two Lake Oswego men want a state constitutional amendment so they can build Oregon's first such off-reservation complex. (1/15/05, The Oregonian)

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