By Editors, Detroit Free Press
As only the most recent arrivals in the long line of players looking for a piece of Michigan's casino gambling action, Lansing and Mayor Virg Bernero should know better.
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| Artist's Rendering: Proposed Kewadin Lansing Casino |
Michigan voters made it quite clear (58%-42%) in 2004 that they did not want more gambling in the state unless any expansion was subject to a statewide vote. Ever since, casino dreamers have tried to build upon the constitutional amendment's only exemption, which allows tribal gambling over which the state has virtually no control anyway.
But tribal casinos are restricted to their own reservations. Every tribe that has tried to work around that restriction to date has come up empty-handed. The most recent attempt, a casino in Vanderbilt that the Bay Mills tribe opened in 2010, shut down after a federal court ruled against it. Earlier attempts included asking Congress to sign off on tribal casinos in Port Huron and Romulus, an effort that fell short.
Now Bernero is entering the same fray with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians at his side. They will either have to go to Congress or hope that the Bay Mills tribe eventually wins its court case in further hearings and sets a new precedent for defining reservation land. But neither the federal courts nor Congress should fall for the dubious logic involved.
Unless a casino can become a major destination for out-of-state travelers, it largely churns local money and removes much of it from the economy. Casinos rank as economic development tools only as part of a mix of entertainment options or, if properly promoted, as a lure for visitors. If Michigan were to develop a statewide casino strategy, Port Huron would probably better fit the development bill as the only border town without a casino.
Lansing residents -- and Michigan State students -- are already within an hour's drive of two of Michigan's 22 Indian casinos. They are hardly out of range of Detroit's casinos, either.
Presumably Bernero and the Sault tribe have marketing studies to back up their estimates of $250 million in annual revenue, with at least $5 million returned directly to the city. (By way of comparison, Detroit's casinos were estimated to have revenues of $1.4 billion in 2011 -- a figure they may never match again if a Toledo casino opens in April, as planned.) Certainly Lansing, like virtually every city in Michigan, would delight in the projected 1,500 new jobs.
But if Lansing succeeds, it will create a precedent not just for itself but for every other city that thinks a casino is the answer to its prayers. Michigan's voters have already said they don't want to go that route -- and praying for salvation via a casino is only a reminder of how desperate people become in tough economic times.
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Blogger’s NOTE: Odd that owners of Detroit’s MGM Grand Casino and Greektown Casino have expressed opposition to plans for a Lansing casino while Marian Ilitch, owner of Detroit’s MotorCity Casino, has remained silent? Not really, since Ilitch and her family’s partner Michael J. Malik, Sr., have pursued plans for casinos in Port Huron and elsewhere for more than 20 years. In fact, their plans for a Port Huron casino might be tied to plans by the Sault tribe proposal for Lansing.
