Stop Predatory Gambling

More facts why casinos don’t create economic prosperity except for those who own them

by spgadmin

Pat Loontjer, Executive Director of Nebraska’s opposition group to predatory gambling “Gambling with the Good Life”, has published a must-read opinion piece in The Omaha World Herald. Check it out below:

“Casinos won’t aid economy”

Repeat after me: Casinos do not add jobs or money to a local economy. They don’t.

Casinos are a drag on eco­nomic development, not an en­gine — despite the claims of gambling promoters like Ponca Tribe Chairman Larry Wright (Nov. 11 Midlands Voices). In fact, casinos are one reason why Iowa has been hit so much hard­er than Nebraska in the current economic climate.

University of Illinois Profes­sor John Kindt noted that “no reputable economist anywhere believes gambling is an eco­nomic tool.” Three nearby stud­ies show why:

1) Economic growth in mid­size Iowa cities that approved casinos has been virtually flat, while growth in non-casino cit­ies has been healthy.

2) A State of South Dakota study concludes that South Dakota would have more jobs and its economy would be $105 million larger each year if that state outlawed slot machines.

3) Putting a casino on the west side of the Missouri River would pull $30 million in spend­ing away from the Nebraska economy and cause 740 jobs to be lost, according to an August 2002 Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce study by Creigh­ton University Professor Ernie Goss.

“The idea that expanded casi­no gambling would be good for the economy is based on faulty economic analysis and repre­sents poor public policy,” says John Anderson, chairman of the UNL Economics Department.

So when Wright, like all casi­no promoters, claims that a Pon­ca casino in Carter Lake would create jobs and expand the local economy, do not believe him. It is simply not true.

Yes, casinos do employ peo­ple. But they do not create any­thing of value to increase the number of dollars in an econo­my. Instead, they suck dollars away to out-of-state manage­ment companies. As a result, those dollars are not spent at lo­cal businesses, jobs are lost and the local economy suffers.

Still don’t believe it? Here’s another expert: “Local business will suffer because they’ll lose customer dollars to the casino,” Donald Trump told the Miami Herald. “(It’s) money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car.”

Of course, casino costs go far beyond economic cannibaliza­tion and lost jobs: >> “The day casinos opened in Council Bluffs, bad checks and forgeries skyrocketed,” says Ron Meredith of Chubb’s Finer Foods in Omaha.

Homelessness was rarely caused by gambling before ca­sinos opened but that factor quickly jumped to 35 percent of admissions at Omaha’s Open Door Mission, according to di­rector Candice Gregory.

“12.4 percent of the crime observed in casino counties would not be there if casinos were absent,” concludes a na­tional study by Baylor Univer­sity Professor Earl Grinols.

More casinos mean more of these costs. According to figures from the Goss study, a Carter Lake casino would in­crease local gambling losses (and their related costs) by 66 percent.

And don’t forget that an Indian casino would be on “sov­ereign land” and not held to lo­cal laws or taxes. The gambling age at the Iowa Indian casinos is 18. Are we ready for that?

All of these are sound public­policy reasons why the Ponca Tribe had to agree they would not build a casino in Carter Lake before they were allowed to place their property in trust. The tribe knew very well what the agreement meant when they made it.

The courts have rightly held them to it, and we are better off because of it.