9602040413
DETROIT FREE PRESS
961110
Sunday, November 10, 1996
METRO FINAL
1F
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1996, Detroit Free Press
DON'T BET ON CASINOS PAYING BIG DIVIDENDS
The trick -- if you want people to vote for casino gambling -- is to talk
as if it's someone else's money on the table. You talk about the millions that
will come in. You talk about fat piles of taxes. You never say that money is
coming from the pockets of the locals. Come on. You think anyone would vote
for a proposal that said "Check 'yes' if you want to give your paycheck to
rich gambling corporations?"
But that's how it works.
Now that Detroit has invited the crapshooters to town, we have little
choice but to hope for the best. We hope that Mayor Dennis Archer -- who not
so long ago was against this whole idea -- knows what he is doing as he
smiles and hails a "new era" in our town.
Forgive me if I have my doubts.
Casinos are not -- and have never been -- in the business of making life
good for cities. They are in business to get rich. And what's best for them is
what they'll do. Or else they won't do it.
Don't take my word. Look down south, to another city that tried this. New
Orleans. I went there a few months ago on vacation. The cab driver drove me
past this half-finished edifice in the middle of downtown. It was ugly and
dusty and had a construction fence around it but no activity.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Oh, that," he groaned. "That's the casino that ain't never gonna open.
Worst thing that ever happened 'round here."
Lady Luckless
New Orleans welcomed casino gambling five years ago. Its citizens heard
the same promises. Increased tourism. Increased revenue. They would tax their
casinos at 18 percent, same as Detroit. They wanted them free-standing, same
as Detroit. They wanted to limit the restaurants inside so that surrounding
businesses would prosper, same as Detroit.
What happened? Well, let me quote from an editorial in the New Orleans
Times-Picayune, which ran last month -- an editorial urging voters to ban
casino gambling five years after welcoming it.
"Casinos have produced no fabled tourist bonanza. . . . Who knows what
these marketing types were inhaling, but here we are, virtually alone at the
blackjack tables . . . and we're staring at each other.
"These are our own neighbors out here. . . . We're running our own money in
circles. The taxes paid by the casinos are mostly our own cash.
"And for that privilege we're stuck with the downside of gambling . . . mob
influence, political corruption and addictive behavior. . . .
"Time to walk away from gambling before it's too late."
Now, here are a few facts about New Orleans: It is warm all year round; it
has some of the best restaurants in the world; it has a wonderful French
Quarter, which is open all night.
If tourists won't go there to visit casinos, what on Earth makes you think
they'll come to Detroit?
Sucker bets
The answer is, they won't. We'll be spending our own money in these
places. And that $200 that Sam from Livonia blows on the crap table is $200 he
won't spend at a local mall. That $300 that Nancy from Hamtramck drops on one
spin of the roulette wheel is $300 less spent on back-to-school shopping.
The money has to come from somewhere, folks. It doesn't just appear. And
if it isn't enough, the casinos will try to weasel out. In New Orleans,
Harrah's projected $33 million a month; it grossed $13 million. Harrah's
bolted. Closed up. Left the city holding the bag, demanding the deal be
renegotiated.
And we're eager to do business with these types?
There's a lawyer down on the Bayou named C.B. Forgotston, who has been
chief counsel for the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee and has been
fighting the gaming interests for years. I called him last week, and the
first thing he said was: "I feel sorry for your town."
He went on to tell how the gaming interests had lined the pockets of local
politicians (and if you don't think that will happen in Detroit, you need to
drink stronger coffee) and how "all those jobs" turned out to be very low
paying, and in many cases, exclusionary, because you needed experience and
several years of college.
Now, it's true, every situation is unique. And not everything that happened
in New Orleans is sure to happen here. But we'd better be extremely careful
with this "bonanza." We spent a lot of time bemoaning the dollars "going
across the river to Canada," but all we've done is create a new sinkhole on
this side of the bridge.
And in so doing, we'll hook customers who didn't want to go through
customs to lose their money. Most of these gamblers will be our people, not
someone else's. How can that we good for our economy?
If you ask me, voters here were dazed by an advertising blitz and the same
empty buzzwords that have erected casinos in other towns, towns that are often
disappointed. Who knows if, in five years, we'll be like New Orleans, trying
to kick gambling out?
Before I hung up with Forgotston, he said, "Good luck."
I said no thanks. Counting on luck is how we got into this thing in the
first place.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
DETROIT; GAMBLING; CASINO