MEDFORD, Ore. — Travelers picking up their luggage at the Medford airport will be greeted by a baggage carousel decorated like a giant roulette wheel.
The Seven Feathers Casino Resort in Canyonville will pay Jackson County $30,000 a year for advertising rights to the baggage carousel at the county-run Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. The carousel will have red, black and green stripes plus numbers like a roulette wheel.
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners approved the advertising contract by a 2-1 vote last week after lengthy discussion.
Commissioner Colleen Roberts cast the solo vote against the roulette wheel advertising idea.
She said vulnerable people, including children and people battling gambling addictions, come through the airport and would be face-to-face with the gambling advertisement when they pick up their baggage.
“No amount of money would make me want to be a part of that,” Roberts said.
Jackson County Counsel Joel Benton said the county cannot censor the content of advertising except if an ad is obscene. If the county rejected the casino’s request to use the baggage carousel for advertising, it would have to reject all future advertising proposals from other entities or risk a lawsuit.
That would put the baggage carousel off-limits for advertising and force the county to forgo advertising revenue there.
Seven Feathers Casino Resort has other advertisements at the airport, including back-lit signs, said airport Director Bern Case.
He said airports in other cities have decorated baggage carousels like roulette wheels.
“Seven Feathers approached us with the concept. It’s an additional location they thought would be interesting and fun for some people,” Case said.
He estimated it would take a few weeks for the aluminum baggage carousel to be redecorated to look like a roulette wheel. The redesign likely would be done with adhesive artwork.
Commissioners Doug Breidenthal and Rick Dyer voted in favor of allowing the casino advertising, citing legal risks in voting against the proposal and free-speech rights.
Breidenthal said as a parent, he had considered the issue carefully. But he said his first responsibility as an elected official is to uphold free-speech protections and other safeguards enshrined in the federal and state constitutions.
“Limiting freedom of speech is not within my authority,” Breidenthal said.
The airport is run by the county as an enterprise fund, meaning it supports itself with revenues and does not rely on money from county property taxes.
Revenue from advertising helps cover investments in the airport and reduces fees the county must charge airlines that use the airport. Higher fees could stop some airlines from serving the airport in Medford, said Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan.
The airport has run into controversies in the past over advertising.
In 2011, the airport dropped plans to allow advertising on its airport tower after public opposition. The advertising could have generated $360,000 over 10 years, according to airport officials.
Some airport users also have complained about televisions paid for by a construction company that air University of Oregon sports events and Fox News. Some people have said Fox News is biased.
Jordan said another entity could pay for other televisions and air different programs.
He said there is intense competition for advertising at the airport, with waiting lists that are months long.
The Seven Feathers casino advertises in a variety of local venues, including at The Expo at the Jackson County Fairgrounds.
This summer the casino inked a deal that led to the renaming of the Compton Arena at The Expo. It is now called the Seven Feathers Event Center.
The Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians, which runs the Seven Feathers casino in Canyonville, is in a public relations and advertising war with the Coquille Tribe, which has a controversial proposal to build a casino in Medford.
The Cow Creek Band has said a Medford casino would decimate its more-distant Canyonville casino.
The Coquille Tribe operates a casino near Coos Bay.
The tribal casinos provide funding for a variety of services to tribal members, and also generate money that is given away in grants to nonprofit organizations, including many in Jackson County.
Many local officials have come out in opposition to a Medford casino, which they say would increase gambling addiction, crime and poverty and strain public services. The casino proposal is under review at the federal level.
