As the franchise owner of an Elmer’s family restaurant in southern Oregon featuring German pancakes “almost as big as Crater Lake” and omelets stuffed with local Tillamook Cheddar cheese, David R. Thomason has always tended to his customers, even before they walk through the front door.
But these days, he is more worried about the ones who come in the side entrance, which leads to a bar lounge where customers can bet on slotlike machines operated by the Oregon Lottery until 2 a.m.
Like many of the state’s 3,800 video lottery retailers who pump almost $1.7 billion into the state’s coffers, Mr. Thomason is waiting for the U.S. Department of Interior to decide whether two Oregon tribes will be allowed to claim a much bigger stake in state gambling revenues by opening casinos in urban areas, far from their reservations along the coast.
