...casino market saturated.....

Since when does that stop the Casino Vultures?

Study: Wisconsin’s casino market saturated

Published 4/11 at 5:25 p.m.

BY JOE WARD

jward@kenoshanews.com

• 
  The proposed Menominee-Hard Rock Kenosha casino project would hurt an already saturated Wisconsin gambling market, opponents say. Project backers counter that it would tap into a robust Illinois market. ( submitted illustration )

A study showing a saturated market in Wisconsin has opponents of the proposed Kenosha casino saying an additional competitor will hurt all gambling outfits in the state.

The 2014 Indian Gaming Industry Report — an independent study of Native American casinos’ economic vitality — shows that Wisconsin’s gambling outlets have lost money since 2007. Despite posting increased revenues in 2012, casinos in the state have earned 3 percent less than in 2007, when the state’s gambling industry reported $1.2 billion in revenue.

According to some, the numbers show a matured market in Wisconsin, where gambling outfits are competing for the same pool of revenue. Adding another casino, like the one the Menonimee Nation has proposed for Kenosha, would just mean that each casino in the state will earn less of the overall gambling revenue, opponents of the project say.

“There’s only so many gamblers,” said George Ermert, spokesman for the Forest County Potawatomi, who operate a casino in Milwaukee. The Potawatomi are opposed to the project because of its possible effects on their operation.

“Facilities are fighting for the same dollars,” Ermert said.

Still, supporters of the Kenosha casino say the decline in revenue is due to the recession, and that the Menominee business plan calls for a substantial amount of revenue to come from Illinois gamblers.

Casino economics

Since 2007, the number of slot machines, table games and casino jobs have increased in Wisconsin. Over that same time period, revenues for casinos have fallen, despite an increase in gambling products, according to the industry report which included financial numbers as recent as 2012.

The proposed Hard Rock casino and entertainment center would add thousands of jobs and slot machines to the state’s gambling market. But that isn’t necessarily a good thing for the state, Ermert said.

“Some of the downturn can be attributed to the recession, but some of it is also due to the maturing of the gaming market,” he said.

Gov. Scott Walker has the final say on the Menominee casino, and has signaled that he will take as much time — perhaps until after November’s election — as needed to make the correct decision.

Walker’s administration is working on an independent report on the jobs and economic impact the Kenosha casino will have on the state.

Walker commissioned the independent look at the casino market after the city of Milwaukee and the Potawatomi both said that the 3,000 jobs gained from a Kenosha casino would be completely offset by losses at the Milwaukee casino.

Ermert said he is confident Walker’s economic impact study will show what other reports have said — that there is no more gambling revenue to be had.

“We are sure that the governor’s report will show that the new casino will be harmful to Wisconsin,” he said.

Menominee refute claims

Michael Beightol, spokesman for the Menominee, said the downturn in the gambling industry has not been much different from any other industry that endured through the recession.

“Every business suffered in the recession,” he said in a statement, noting that the market in 2012 showed a robust, nearly $20 million improvement over 2011.

Besides, Beightol said the Hard Rock Kenosha project will not just compete for gambling revenues from Wisconsin residents.

As much as 65 percent of the proposed Hard Rock’s profits are expected to come from Illinois. A study commissioned by the Menominee shows that $2 billion in untapped gambling revenue exists in the Chicago market.

“It’s important to remember the strategic location for the proposed Kenosha casino, just 8 miles from the state line,” Beightol said. “The Menominee Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will bring more guests from Illinois which will help the tribal gaming business over time increase overall revenues, put Wisconsinites back to work and increase payments to the state.”



http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/study_wisconsins_casino_market_saturated_476515737.html

Social Costs Of The Gambling Boom Are Ignored

Op/Ed

9/25/2013 @ 8:00AM |99 views

As Native American Casinos Proliferate, The Social Costs Of The Gambling Boom Are Ignored

By Kerri Toloczko

Indian gaming has been a hot button issue since before the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passed in 1988. Although administration of Tribal casinos by state and federal government is codified in law, it is often a sidebar in the debate as to whether a casino should be approved in a community.


Wisconsin has more than 20 Indian casinos with another request in the pipeline. The tribe presenting the newest application is trying to circumvent long-standing federal regulation requiring tribes to open casinos only on reservation lands unless specific criteria are met – including that the casino be a “commutable”distance from the reservation.

The proposed gaming site is 200 miles away from the applicant Menominee Tribe’s doorstep.

Although waivers are rarely given, the tribe has had success with the Obama Administration after it proposed running the new facility using union labor for the first time in Wisconsin gaming history — leaving one to wonder if it will be a tribal casino at all?

The casino also requires approval from the state and Wisconsin’s other tribes, neither of which it has. Governor Scott Walker has applied brakes to this circumvention of federal law by proposing common-sense requirements – not an easy position to take in a state overrun with big gaming money and the lobbying pressure that comes with it.

A prime concern must be the crime and moral decline that often accompanies casinos – especially those associated with unions. In the cost-benefit analysis of casino positives and negatives that accrue to the community affected, social impacts should be a critical determinant.

In many places, sleaze and filth are commonplace around casinos. Las Vegas, our country’s largest union-controlled gaming venue, is known as “Sin City.” Along with its tourists, pornography, prostitution, drug use and alcoholism walk its sidewalks. Gaming chips away at the innocence and morals of society and is antithesis to the notion that fiscal responsibility and embracing a clean, healthy environment are good national characteristics.

Casinos are crime magnets with two types of illegal activity: Internal corruption that includes money laundering, loan sharking and mob influence, and street crime. It is the increase in crime directly spilling from casino doors that has the most immediate affect on surrounding communities. For nearby neighborhoods, these include DUI-related accidents, home robberies and mail theft. If a precedent is set that Indian casinos are no longer restricted to reservation lands, negatives will impact neighboring areas like never before.

According to a 2012 study of casino crime by University of Maryland researchers, there is a 10 percent increase in substance abuse, suicide, violent crime, theft and bankruptcy when a new casino opens in town. Other studies found 8 – 9 percent crime increases at a cost near $70 per year for every person living nearby. After Atlantic City’s rapid casino growth in the 1980s, crime increased by 100 percent in a 30 mile radius surrounding the area.

When casinos started booming in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute commissioned a three-part study of casino related crime in the Badger State that produced frightening results. The expert panel (an economist, a statistician and an expert in gaming administration) found, “existence of a casino within the boundaries of a county led to an increase in county-wide crime rates (and) a strong spillover effect with counties adjacent experiencing higher crime rates.” Their data showed a 5,300 annual increase of “major crimes” and 17,100 “minor crimes” with an associated cost in 2001 dollars of $51 million for Wisconsin taxpayers.

Debt is a damaging and destructive influence in society, and the main reason for divorce. Divorce is a main cause of poverty, depression and youth crime. National data demonstrates that debt increases alongside new casinos. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, casinos attract “pathological gamblers” who account for 50% of casino revenue and much of the crime.

An Indian nation singularly focused on the staggering increase in tribal revenue provided by casinos will continue to ignore social costs, as it is in its reasonable self-interest to do so. However, citizens in impacted communities should not choose violence and crime over morals, integrity and the cost of illegal activity. If a non-reservation casino is built, problems will not affect “someone else” - it will have an immediate, negative effect on Wisconsin society and the wallets of its workers.

Nationwide in 2008, about 80 percent of both Tribal and union contributions (more than $500 million) went to the Obama campaign and Democrats – a strategy paying off at the expense of Wisconsin communities. As Scott Walker takes a stand against integration of crime into neighborhoods he has sworn to protect, regardless of their political views, Wisconsinites would be wise to join their Governor on this issue, making it clear to the government in Washington and special interests in their state that they stand for safe communities – and themselves.

Kerri Toloczko is a Senior Fellow with Let Freedom Ring, a public policy organization supporting constitutional government, economic freedom and traditional values.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/09/25/as-native-american-casinos-proliferate-the-social-costs-of-the-gambling-boom-are-ignored/