A story in the Columbian yesterday illustrates the dangers of being a one-industry town, as a new tribal casino threatens La Center’s card rooms:

In the small city of a little more than 3,000 people, cardrooms play a key role in government spending power. Historically, cardroom tax revenue tends to make up about three-quarters of the city’s operating budget.

When Chips Casino shut down last year, the city suddenly faced a deficit of about $400,000, nearly 10 percent of its operating budget for 2015. At the time, Chips was the smallest cardroom in La Center.

Competition from tribal casinos is exacerbated by technological changes in the gambling industry and by labor issues:

The recent push to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour is also particularly daunting for the industry, [Executive Director of the Recreational Gaming Association Dolores] Chiechi said. Cardrooms tend to be more labor intensive than tribal casinos, because each card table needs a dealer, and few cardroom owners could afford to pay such high wages.

Additionally, the story references card room profits data from the Washington State Gambling Commission. In 2013, seven card rooms around the state had profits in excess of $1 million, and one lost over $1 million.