ZILLAH, WA — A casino owner’s request for an adult-entertainment license has the local population worrying Zillah, a town of 2,660 in Washington’s wine country near Yakima, will overtake Las Vegas on the “Sin City” quality of life scale.“I don’t want people to drive by on the freeway and point to our town and say, ‘Hey, that’s where the adult entertainment is,’” Tinda East, a lifelong Zillah resident, told the Yakima Herald. “We’re trying to make ourselves into a Tuscan wine town, and a strip club doesn’t fit in with that.”
Casino owner Jamie Muffett, 32, said adding a strip club to his struggling Tuscan Sands Casino would boost revenues for the entire town by attracting additional visitors to Zillah. The casino opened six months ago, and so far the single-sin gambling approach hasn’t worked all that well for him.
“It’s not sleazy, it’s not prostitution,” he said of the lone stage he wants to embed among the property’s one-armed bandits and table games. “It’s not going to bring any other clientele than a bar would bring.”
Muffett said the cabaret component would operate well within the laws governing adult clubs. There would be no exterior signage, the dancers would not be allowed to leave the stage topless, and the security staff would be increased. He’s even willing to give up his liquor license to facilitate approval of the application.
The only snag is the casino’s location within 600 feet of property owned by the city. That means Tuscan Sands must receive a special-use permit — the first in the town’s history — and that’s what caused the proverbial excrement to collide with the air-circulation equipment.
A public hearing on the permit is set for 7:00 pm June 17th. When local residents got wind of the request, they galvanized for action. According to City Clerk Sharon Bounds, Town Hall received “several phone calls” about the matter. A local pastor and her husband are circulating a petition in order to shut down the license application before it even gets a good start.
“It’ll most likely bring in people who prey on that kind of stuff,” Pastor Lisa Bower told the Yakima Herald. “We don’t need that in the valley.”
Muffett is dismayed by the lack of understanding about “adult entertainment” that exists in the community.
“What’s really sad is the stigma,” he told the Herald. “It [would bring] in more money not just for us, but for other businesses.”
