Chicago caisno troubles

from today's Crain's Chicago Business

Hoped-for casino boost faces long odds

By Steven R. Strahler and Steve Daniels
Dec. 17, 2007

"As a downtown Chicago casino inches closer to reality, results from gambling forays in Detroit and other Midwestern cities suggest a limited payout here for the convention and tourism industries.

Three casinos near downtown Detroit, the first of which opened in 1999, have done little to attract more visitors or otherwise boost the city's struggling economy" ...

"Chicago casino boosters cite a potential impact of as much as $950 million a year in annual revenue and 2,500 new jobs from a casino with 4,000 gambling positions, figures that could grow to $1.2 billion and 3,200 jobs for the hospitality industry as a whole. But critics say much of that would not be new money.

'IT'S A ZERO-SUM GAME'

"The good thing (about casinos) is they make a lot of money," says William Thompson, a University of Nevada at Las Vegas professor of public administration. Casinos "pay a lot of taxes. The bad thing is they make the money off local residents. It's a zero-sum game."

After more than 15 years of false starts, approval of a Chicago casino appears more likely than ever, with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan backing a bill that calls for a city-owned casino in Chicago and two others elsewhere. The House Gaming Committee had been expected to consider the bill this week, but on Friday Mr. Madigan canceled plans to reconvene. An even more ambitious casino bill passed the Senate in September.

The House bill is backed, with reservations, by Mayor Richard M. Daley, who wants the Legislature to omit an $800-million license fee that's part of the Senate bill.

Chicago casino backers are counting on gambling to encourage longer stays from many of the approximately 33 million conventioneers, tourists and others who visit the city each year. They're also hoping it will lift Chicago's convention industry, which has slipped behind Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., as a trade show destination.

'WON'T MOVE THE NEEDLE'

However, fewer than 10% of U.S. convention officials say casinos are a key site-selection factor, says Michael Hughes, associate publisher of Los Angeles-based Tradeshow Week." ...

"In Detroit, about 20% of casino patrons are non-locals, according to the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, which credits the casinos with spurring development or renovation of more than 2,000 hotel rooms. The city is hoping for more tourism dollars as the MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino and Greektown Casino, which ring the central business district, settle into their new hotel locations." ...

for the complete story see:
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=2
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