Wisconsin: Don't bet on a Beloit casino

Don't bet on a Beloit casino

Beloit needs jobs. No question about that.

But a gambling casino isn't the answer.

State and federal officials should resist the latest pitch to build a casino in Beloit.

Wisconsin is already flush with gambling — 17 American Indian casinos, seven smaller tribal convenience stores with slot machines, a state-sanctioned lottery at most gas stations, groceries and liquor stores, and video poker machines in bars. (Wisconsin decriminalized five or fewer video poker machines per bar in 1999.)

Here in Madison, we also have the glorified DeJope Bingo Hall on the city's Southeast Side that voters overwhelmingly stopped from becoming a full-blown casino in a 2004 referendum.

American Indian casinos are legal and, for most people, relatively harmless fun.

But the more casinos Wisconsin has, the less of an attraction they become.

Casinos also tend to redistribute wealth, rather than build a local economy that can continue to expand, offer higher wages and develop the tax base.

The Ho-Chunk Nation, headquartered in Black River Falls, told the Beloit Daily News this week that the tribe is working to develop a casino in Beloit. The Ho-Chunk spent $4 million on 26 acres of land last year that had been the proposed site of a previous pitch for a casino by the St. Croix and Bad River Chippewa tribes, the newspaper reported.

The lure of casino jobs and a new revenue stream for local and state governments may sound enticing. But this is a bad bet for Rock County and Wisconsin.

The new casino would merely compete for the same dollars already being spent on gambling. And the state's cut of the casino's profit would be offset by smaller takes elsewhere.

Enough is enough.

Let's focus on expanding the good-paying jobs of the future instead of falling back on this same old wager that won't pay off.


When considering the success of Predatory Gambling as 'fiscal policy,' should we consider the fiscal health of states that have endorsed widespread gambling?

The information below is alarming -

From: Taxes, weather take glitter off golden years

As for fiscal health, six of the 10 worst states for retirees on TopRetirements.com's list were among those just identified by a Pew Center for States report as being in "fiscal peril."

The report, "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril," showed that "some of the same pressures that have pushed California toward economic disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of other states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country."

Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin joined California as the 10 most troubled states, according to Pew's analysis.

Of note, TopRetirements.com's Brady suggested that retirees and would-be retirees might want to avoid states in fiscal peril because these locales might be expected to face decreasing services and increasing taxation.

States with the greatest tax burdens after New Jersey were New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, California, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin and Rhode Island, joined by the District of Columbia.