The North County Transit District will roll the dice Monday and ask local tribes to consider paying for the agency's costly backcountry casino trips for people with disabilities.

Directors of the cash-poor public district, which manages bus and train routes across more than 1,000 square miles in North County, assailed the service in November after learning NCTD pays $55,000 annually on the casino trips ---- some of which start as far away as San Clemente and cost a taxpayer-subsidized $8 per round trip. Taxis, by comparison, charge about $200 round-trip from that city to the remote gambling centers.

Tim McCormick, the district's director of service planning, said he will meet with Tony Largo of the Reservation Transportation Authority, a nonprofit tribal group that partners with state, federal and local transportation agencies.

"We're not going in with a big agenda," McCormick said, adding the meeting will be a "discussion."

McCormick said he did not know of any similar deals between tribes and transit agencies.

Largo could not be reached Wednesday.

Federal disability law requires NCTD to provide the casino trips, which must be requested at least one day in advance. Small shuttles with wheelchair lifts pick up passengers. The district also runs regular bus routes for the general public between Escondido and the backcountry casinos.

The casino runs for disabled riders are a small chunk of the $4 million the district spends each year on service for the disabled. Trips to medical centers and grocery stores are requested more often by riders with disabilities than the casinos.

That information, however, didn't stop transit board members from attacking the casino runs last fall, with transit director and county Supervisor Bill Horn saying the practice "just doesn't seem right to me."

The district, despite recent employee outsourcing, fare increases and bus route cuts, still faces multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls in future years.

McCormick, the service planning director, said a decision on subsidies may take awhile. He said Largo will relay the district's interest to regional tribal leaders, including those that own the three North County casinos: Valley View Casino, Pala Casino and Harrah's Rincon Casino.

A spokeswoman for the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, which owns the Rincon casino, said last fall the tribe was interested in the idea and looked forward to more information.

Officials for the other two tribes declined comment.

In the end, each North County tribe will have to decide independently whether it wants to participate, said Albert Phoenix, former chairman of the RTA and a member of the East County-based Barona Band of Mission Indians.

"I think it would be good if some of the tribes participated in it," Phoenix said.

Call staff writer Chris Nichols at 760-740-5426.