LETTER: Show up to restrict casinos in Kalispell

Now is the time to show your support for restricting casinos. As a result of the opposition that a small action group was able to muster to the Town Pump project with casino currently being built next to Eisinger’s on West Reserve Drive in Kalispell (vote of 5-4 to allow the casino with Mayor Johnson casting the deciding vote), the Kalispell City Council felt compelled to discuss restricting future casino development.

The Kalispell City Planning Board will propose amendments in an advisory capacity to the City Council at the work session during the upcoming City Council meeting on Monday.

The proposed amendments do not include the boundaries proposed to the Planning Board by the planning staff: No new stand-alone casinos north of the boundary line of Idaho Street, and none south of the boundary line of Airport Way/Twin Acres. Accessory use casinos — bars or restaurants running up to 20 video gambling machines — were not included in the planning staff recommendation, but they need to be.

Evidence has been presented to both boards illustrating that video gambling machines are the “crack cocaine” of gambling. One session at a machine can permanently change brain chemistry, creating an addict. Casino gambling victimizes those who can least afford it, such as our veterans and elderly widows. It is subversive to the family, taking food out of kids’ mouths, and clothes off their backs. There is one gambling addiction counselor in Kalispell, and earlier this year, she was in Texas undergoing cancer treatment. In other words, while city officials are victimizing the population, they aren’t providing social services for the victims.

It is criminal that there are 24 casinos operating within the city limits of a city of 21,000 people, and we could have 22 more casinos within the city limits! Go to the Kalispell City Council website and view the video of the Sept. 15 meeting. Senior Planner Tom Jentz is quoted as saying, “There’s a casino waiting to come into Kalispell today.” The planning staff admitted that without restrictions, we could end up with a “Little Vegas” strip down the U.S. 93 corridor from Kalispell to Whitefish, as the city annexes land from the county. We need to protect our entry corridors.

City officials can use apathy to push through policies that degrade our society. The Planning Board members even stated at the meeting on Sept. 15 that they don’t know what to do about public apathy. If you care about the character of Kalispell and the Flathead Valley, and if you care about the quality of life here — especially for families — now and into the future, please put the City Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m., in the City Council chambers of City Hall, 201 First Avenue E., Kalispell, on your calendar.

Let’s pack the City Council chambers and show them that we care! —Jenny La Sorte, Kalispell