EBSCOhost Back 1 article(s) will be saved. The link information below provides a persistent link to the article you've requested. Persistent link to this record: Following the link below will bring you to the start of the article or citation. Cut and Paste: To place article links in an external web document, simply copy and paste the HTML below, starting with "Would casino help or hurt our economy? Database: Newspaper Source Would casino help or hurt our economy? ~~~~~~~~ Dan Voorhis May 17--Studies show that a casino has a net positive effect on a local economy, but causes economic damage as well Over the next few months, casino developers will talk a lot about the hundreds of jobs they'll create. They'll point to the tens of millions of dollars they'll spend on construction and the tourists who will flock to Wichita to gamble. Many experts and studies around the nation have concluded that casino gambling is economically a positive for a community. But they also acknowledge that in addition to the troubling social problems it brings, gambling causes economic damage in the communities that host it. How much damage depends on the community. Although there have been at least three studies of a Wichita casino in recent years, none settles the question of whether gambling would be good or bad for the Wichita economy. The Kansas Legislature gave Sedgwick County the chance to vote on a destination casino and a greyhound track/slot machine complex, or "racino," at Wichita Greyhound Park. Sedgwick County will vote on the issue on Aug. 7. Despite conflicting studies, experts agree with some basic conclusions: --The more tourists a casino pulls in, the better. If only locals gamble at the casino and racetrack, it basically recycles dollars already in the local economy. --The greater the percentage of local gamblers, the more dollars are sucked away from existing local restaurants and movie theaters. --It will keep more local gamblers and their dollars in town. A 1998 analysis of 36 of these studies concluded that gambling overall was an economic positive for communities. The study, by Adam Rose and Associates for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, showed that the direct and indirect impacts of construction, operation and taxation outweighed other negative impacts. The study didn't factor in the social costs. Three studies estimate a Sedgwick County casino would take in between $170 million and $190 million a year over what it pays out in winnings. From that, the casino pays taxes, wages, operating and capital expenses; the rest is profit. The racino would take in considerably less money. A study for the state by Christian Capital Advisors estimates the Wichita Greyhound Park racino would bring in $56 million. Park owner Phil Ruffin said he didn't know what his take would be. Tourism as key Increased tourism is the only real way that a casino can be considered an economic development. If tourists spend money here, casinos act like a factory, where outside money supports local workers. When locals gamble, that merely moves money already inside the economy from one person to another. "I've read through stacks of studies and the bottom line is that the percentage of tourists is the key," said Janet Harrah, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University. That's the main reason the state insisted that the casino here be a destination casino, equipped with hotels and restaurants, costing at least $225 million. The fancier the casino, the more hotel rooms and restaurants it has, the better it draws people from farther away. The state requires proposals to project how many tourists a casino will draw. But Wichita has never been much of a tourist town. It sits in a sparsely populated part of the country with little obvious scenery to pull in sightseers. And there would be plenty of competition. Wichita Greyhound Park would get at least 600 slot machines and likely many more. Eastern, northeastern and western Kansas will get their own casinos and racinos. A 2004 study by GVA Marquette Advisors paid for by the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. projected that 24 percent of a Wichita casino's visitors, about 375,000, would come from beyond 50 miles. About 45 percent would come from Sedgwick County. The Christian Capital Advisors study projected that a Wichita casino would get 19 percent of its revenue from beyond 50 miles. These numbers don't include the increased attention from conventions -- a considerable draw. Members of the Women's International Bowling Congress came to Wichita in 2004 to bowl, but in their down time they regularly chartered buses to the casinos near Topeka and in Kansas City, said Olivia Simmons, vice president of the Greater Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau. But Glenn Thompson of the anti-gambling group Stand Up for Kansas gets fired up when the talk turns to tourism. "They talk about jobs, jobs, jobs and how many tourists there will be, and it's just not there," he said. "It's pulling from the local region." Will it help or hurt other businesses? The other factor voters will be asked to consider is the effects of displaced spending vs. retained spending. Casinos suck up huge amounts of money from the local populace. That money would most likely be spent on entertainment, such as watching movies or going out to eat. In more desperate circumstances, gambling will take money meant for the doctor or the landlord. This is called the displacement effect. A 100 percent displacement means that all of the money lost gambling would have been spent in other businesses. An analysis of gambling studies prepared for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found substitution effects ranging from 35 percent to 100 percent. The authors of the GVA Marquette study looking at a downtown casino say the number for a Sedgwick County casino could be as high as 72 percent, perhaps $130 million, now being spent in area business going to the casino. But, the report's authors admit, such a number is too hypothetical to realistically estimate in advance. On the other side of the equation is the amount of money Wichitans spend at Kansas City, Topeka and Oklahoma casinos that would otherwise stay in the local economy. There is no estimate for how much that is, but the CCA study estimated that Kansans contributed 38 percent of the Missouri riverboat revenue in 2003. Ruffin said there is no question in his mind that gambling is economic development. "When you bring people in from other cities, it doesn't detract from other businesses' sales," Ruffin said. "They can't gamble all day long. They go to theaters, they go to shows, the whole thing." Reach Dan Voorhis at 316-268-6577 or dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com]. Copyright (c) 2007, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. Copyright of Wichita Eagle, The (KS) is the property of Wichita Eagle, The (KS). The copyright in an individual article may be maintained by the author in certain cases. Content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Source: Wichita Eagle, The (KS), May 17, 2007 Item: 2W62W61637791711 Back