Tribal leaders in Cherokee — and all enrolled members of the Tribe — have a complex issue to work through as they decide whether to serve alcohol at Harrah’s Casino.

At their meeting in August the Tribal Council is expected to at least discuss a proposal from the Tribal Gaming Commission that would let enrolled members decide the issue in a vote. A similar request from the Gaming Commission was floated a couple of years ago, but it was yanked from the council’s agenda. Gaming Commission members did not think the time was right then to pursue the matter.

Now, times are different.

“We’re charged with making business decisions for the tribe and the casino, and we feel this is the right thing to do or we wouldn’t be advocating to make this change,” Norma Moss, chair of the Tribal Gaming Commission Board, told The Smoky Mountain News.

The casino is in the midst of a $650 million expansion that includes a theater, a new hotel, a spa, and more gaming space. As the economy has slowed, however, revenues have become flat for the first time since the casino opened 10 years ago.

That means less money for projects on the Qualla Boundary, less money to entice the employees the casino will need as the expansion goes on line, and less money for tribal members when the per capita checks are mailed out twice a year.

The Tribal Council and its enrolled members are the shareholders and the decision-makers for Western North Carolina’s most successful company — Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. It is now the state’s largest tourist attraction. The leadership decisions the tribe makes will affect the entire region, something that’s not lost on those in surrounding communities who feed off the thousands who flock to the casino each year.

From a business standpoint, the decision is a no-brainer. Serving alcohol at the casino would mean more business, more revenue and more money for all the great projects the tribe has so far invested in with casino profits. Families would get more money in their per capita checks.

But the social ramifications of the decision are thorny. Native American communities have suffered from higher rates of alcoholism than other demographic groups. In addition, many mountain Cherokee come from conservative religious backgrounds where alcohol use of any kind is frowned upon.

Perhaps what is most relevant to this decision, however, is the track record at the Cherokee casino. The partnership between the tribe — through the Gaming Commission, the Tribal Council, and the chief’s office — and Harrah’s has led to a well-run casino that has not caused the problems many feared. Unfortunately there are some who suffer problems from gambling addictions, but the overall impact of the casino on Western North Carolina and the Eastern Band has been overwhelmingly positive.

Working together, these entities have proven that they know how to run a good business, and we suspect that if alcohol was served at the casino the same level of professionalism and good management would apply. Problems would be kept to a minimum, and profits for all involved would increase.