GRAND FORKS - City Council members say they will protect charities that depend on gambling revenue if a new American Indian casino comes to town.

"We would not allow the charities, for the good work they do, to go down," Councilman Hal Gershman said.

Representatives of six groups told the council on Monday that a casino could force them to close and reduce services to people in need.

"Those are a constituency that can't look out for themselves," said Peter Johnson, president of The ARC, Upper Valley. "We're here to speak on their behalf."

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa has been seeking support for a casino south of Grand Forks.

The six groups at the council meeting Monday - including Special Olympics North Dakota and the North Dakota Association for the Disabled - represent nearly all of charitable gambling in the city. Despite their fears about a casino, several group representatives said they have not closed the door on discussions with the tribe.

They simply wanted the council to know how they could be hurt, Johnson said.

Kathy Meagher, the state Special Olympics president, said her group did not ask the council to reject the casino, nor did it rule out negotiating with the tribe.

Bill Johnson, the tribe's lead consultant on the casino, said the tribe is interested in revenue sharing to help the charities. In other communities with Indian casinos and charitable gambling, tribes have offered a cut of the revenue, he said.

Peter Johnson suggested the state allow the charities to offer slot machines if the casino is approved. Meagher said the Legislature has rejected that idea, fearing a proliferation of casinos statewide.

The North Dakota Association for the Disabled, Special Olympics and the Blue Line Club are among those groups that take in more than 80 percent of their revenue from gambling. Even The ARC, which also gets money from its thrift store, depends on gambling for 40 percent of its revenue.

The groups' counterparts elsewhere have suffered from competition with Indian casinos, they said. The Association for the Disabled had to close Lakeside Bingo in Devils Lake in 2004, they said, because of competition with the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe's casino. Meagher said Special Olympics had to close its gambling operation there as well.

Tribal officials have said the casino proposal is still in a very preliminary stage. Councilman Doug Christensen called it a "very remote" possibility.

"I was going to say 'slim to none, and slim just left town,'" he said.