Detroit Gambling Promoters Using 10-Year-Old Study to Re-Ignite Case for Gambling in Hawaii

Despite 9/11, the recession and other factors that have changed the economic landscape since 2000, Detroit casino syndicators and their Hawaii-based hired-guns have pulled this ten-year-old boilerplate report off the shelf, dusted it off and are using it to re-ignite their case for legalized gambling in Hawaii. Only two states do not have any form of legalized gambling today:  Hawaii and Utah.

Jake Miklojcik, author of the study and a Lansing-based consultant-for-hire, is the go-to-guy when Detroiters Michael Malik and Marian Ilitch -- or their PR mouthpiece Tom Shields -- need to produce a "study" to support their gambling/business agenda.  A look back at the work he produced when they were advocating voters approve commercial gambling in Detroit is warranted to determine just how far off the mark they were back then.

Detroiters' Hawaii Gambling Study 2000

Blogger's Note:  Certainly the Detroiter's own experiences winning voter approval of gambling in the Motor City and operating a casino in Detroit suggest that the economic boom they predicted in the 1990s would reign on Detroit once casinos were built has not materialized. Casino operators are more highly leveraged making creditors nervous and workers were recently asked to pay for their own health care or face job losses. An acknowledgement of failed promises is due and certainly a new study by some independent source would be appropriate based on what they now know as real world experience.  

And if one examines the economic, culture and social landscape of Detroit before voters approved gambling vs. today, they'd be hard pressed to suggest the three commercial casinos have made Detroit a better place to live. Forbes just ranked Detroit #1 Most Dangerous City in America.