Don’t bet on it

The anti-casino forces broadened their base this week with the release of a letter signed by two dozen current or retired business leaders from companies including Cessna, Koch and Intrust. The letter, released by Stand Up for Kansas, says a Park City Casino would have economic and social costs that would outweigh its value. Expect Bob Knight and the pro-casino forces to fire back.
Posted by Lou Heldman

5 Comments

  1. D Collins
    Posted June 17, 2005 at 7:23 pm | Permalink

    You mean extracting half a billion bucks from the poor in Wichita would have social costs? Say it isn’t so!

  2. E. Ireland
    Posted June 18, 2005 at 1:25 am | Permalink

    I’ve only been in one Indian casino. I went in looking for a pay phone and I left thinking I was the only one who got what he came for. Gray haired automatons worked the one-armed bandits and droopy-eyed gamblers slouched at gaming tables. There was no excitement in the air. Nobody smiled. It was more depressing than a funeral parlor. Why on earth do people want casinos?

    The Wichita business leaders have done a great service by making thair voices heard. They cite the real and documented experiences that other cities have had with casinos, showing them to be a drain on the local economy and a huge cost for both law enforcement and social service agencies.

    As a foster parent, I’ve nursed and mended too many neglected and damaged kids. We already have too many parents at the end of their ropes. Gambling will only make it worse, especially considering that the proposed casino is expected to create 5200-7800 pathological gamblers locally. Roughly one-third of these (say, 2000) will be parents gambling away the family food and rent money. Are we ready and willing to see another several thousand Sedgwick County kids in the foster care system each year? I doubt that anyone has factored in the additional millions that this will cost.

    Finally, am I the only one upset at the obvious efforts by the Indians to undermine our democratic process by bribing our legislators with money for schools if they approve casinos. Political thuggery is the great, untold secret of the casino world. Once casinos take hold in Kansas, the people’s voice will be buried by even more of this kind of corruption.

    Shame on elected officials (and, ahem, retired ones) for shilling for the Indian mobs that run casinos.

  3. Dennis Towner
    Posted June 19, 2005 at 7:36 pm | Permalink

    So, the big money folks of Sedgewick county do not want a casino? I have a really hard time believing that any form of corporate America is at all concerned about us poor folks. Sounds alot like “big fish/ little pond syndrome” to me. If the Foxwoods corp. funds the Park City proposal they will have no use for the local hotshots. And that might bruise their little egos.

  4. Joseph
    Posted June 22, 2005 at 11:23 pm | Permalink

    Mr. Towner, is that really the best you can do? You ignore all the compelling facts presented by the business leaders and launch into an unwarranted rant with no facts to support it. I can see that you are poor, but not in the way you think. You’ll get nowhere until you change your attitude.

  5. Dennis Towner
    Posted June 22, 2005 at 11:43 pm | Permalink

    Joseph, I forgive you