Facts prove otherwise

Proponents of Slot Barns in Massachusetts continue to promote exaggerated job creation numbers from an outdated report, prepared during better economic times when gas was cheaper.

Unions and Cheerleaders continue to suggest Massachusetts will enjoy tens of thousands of new jobs, even as the facts prove otherwise.

This comment from the Danville, Illinois Mayor is revealing [the facts are readily available]:


[Danville Mayor Scott] Eisenhauer also estimates 800 to 1,000 jobs in the casino itself. According to the Illinois Gaming Board's 2010 annual report, the Peoria riverboat employs 828 and the Alton riverboat 528.


Proposed gambling expansion has proponents, opponents in Danville
Tracy Moss

DANVILLE — Some tout the benefits — more jobs, more local revenue. Others warn of the costs — addiction, crime, bankruptcies.

As the state awaits Gov. Pat Quinn's decision on a gaming expansion bill that includes a riverboat casino for Danville, the only sure bet is that opinions are split on the issue.

... some in Danville, like the Rev. Thomas W. Miller, pastor of New Life Church of Faith, are sending the governor a different message.

Miller said he will write Gov. Quinn about the people who will be harmed by compulsive gambling, the loss of their jobs and possibly their marriages and families. He said any community that gets a casino will have a certain percentage of people who end up addicted, and their families will be destroyed.

"Everyone in favor may say it's not their fault or responsibility, but I am concerned for any one person or family that would be possibly destroyed because of the gambling boat," Miller said. "And I don't think the mayor or anyone is in denial of that."




Eisenhauer also estimates 800 to 1,000 jobs in the casino itself. According to the Illinois Gaming Board's 2010 annual report, the Peoria riverboat employs 828 and the Alton riverboat 528.


Miller said Danville needs jobs, but the casino benefits do not outweigh the costs.

"I would hope we continue to pursue businesses that are family-friendly and supportive, because no one wants to have to suffer their mom or dad becoming addicted to gambling," said Miller, who added that any community that gets a casino will have a certain percentage of people who end up addicted. "If your wife, husband, mom or dad is destroyed by it, I would not want to say I supported it, even as much as we need jobs."

No consensus statewide

Opinions beyond Danville are also divided on if Illinois should expand gaming.

Annie Thompson, press secretary for the governor, said calls, e-mails and letters have picked up since the state legislature passed the gaming expansion bill, but the feedback has been split between those in support and those opposed.

Since 1990, polls consistently show that voters in Illinois are against gambling expansion by a 2-to-1 margin, according to John Kindt, UI professor of business and legal policy for over 30 years, who has testified before Congress and state legislatures in regard to gambling. He said more than 70 Illinois cities and counties passed ordinances against electronic gaming machines and slots after the legislature voted to expand electronic gaming in 2009.

But the biggest concern with a casino in Danville, he said, is that it would target students at the UI, Danville Area Community College and Parkland Community College. He said research shows the rate of gambling addiction among students is double that of the older population.

"Students are a prime market," he said. "They are the Nintendo generation and video gambling in casinos is 80 to 90 percent of the overall revenues."

He said half to two-thirds of the money coming out of the casinos is from problem gamblers, who are not addicts but gamble beyond so-called entertainment. Students are becoming a larger percentage of the problem-gambling population, he said, and gambling facilities know this. Within 30 miles of a major university, that's a dream market, he said.

Studies have shown that Illinois riverboats pull a majority of their patrons from a radius of 50 miles or less. Five years after Illinois' first riverboat casinos were approved in 1990, a study by the Chicago Better Government Association interviewed 785 patrons at five Illinois riverboats and found that 85 percent lived within 50 miles of the casino, 97.7 percent stayed less than one day and the purchases they made outside the casinos were minimal. A survey by the Illinois Gaming Board of 13,000 patrons visiting 10 riverboats over a four-day period in 1997 found that 62 percent lived within 50 miles of the casinos they visited.

Kindt said gaming expansion is exactly the opposite of what Illinois should be doing to enhance its economy and protect its students, because casinos pull money out of the local economy, transferring money from the consumer to the pockets of casino owners.

"People are dumping money into slot machines and not buying cars, refrigerators, clothes and food, so billions are lost in consumer spending, and that translates into lost jobs in the consumer economy," he said.

Kindt said new gambling facilities cause personal and business bankruptcies, new compulsive gamblers and new crime.

Studies look at gaming

SMR Research Corp. publishes market studies on consumer loan subjects and a variety of statistical research, including studies of personal bankruptcies. The most recent was last year, and like its bankruptcy study in the late 1990s, SMR lists gambling as one of the prime drivers of bankruptcy. The research shows bankruptcy rates are higher in counties with major gambling facilities.

The most comprehensive study of casinos and crime, published by Harvard and M.I.T., found that a casino's effect on crime is low shortly after it opens, but grows over time. "Problem and pathological gamblers commit crimes as they deplete their resources, non-residents who visit casinos may both commit and be victims of crime, and casino-induced changes in the population start small but grow," according to the report. A 1998 survey of 184 members of Gamblers Anonymous found that 56 percent admitted they stole to finance their gambling.

Rev. Jimmy Hopper with First Presbyterian Church in downtown Danville said a group of local ministers met with the mayor a few years ago on the gaming issue, and the consensus among the ministers was that a riverboat would not be the right solution for Danville.

"I don't trust that it's going to be the big economic savior our community needs," Hopper said. "We need to be extremely cautious as to what we think this could do for Danville."

Hopper said moral issues aside, he doesn't trust the economic projections, and from what he's read about the impact of gambling in other cities and states, the long-term economic benefits are questionable, and even negative, and the impact on families dealing with gambling addiction would fall to already-burdened churches.

"I see the communities with existing boats being damaged by an expansion of this size," [Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis] said.