Monday, September 25, 2006

Electronic-slots parlors would generate thousands of jobs and tens of
millions of dollars to seed local business growth, gambling supporters say.
But the four parlors that would sprout in Greater Cleveland are by no means
a sure bet to bolster the region's economy, anti-gambling forces respond.
Even the local power brokers who back the plan to bring nine parlors and
31,000 slots to Ohio acknowledge that gambling is not an engine of resurgent
economies. "If you were to start from scratch and draw your optimal
economic development paradigm, you wouldn't necessarily include gambling as
part of it," says Fred Nance, adviser to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and
chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the local chamber of
commerce. Yet Nance, Jackson, Cuyahoga County commissioners and other civic
leaders say slots at two sites downtown - and at racetracks in North Randall
and Northfield - would join lakefront museums and Gateway sports sites as
valued attractions. "This is the biggest project and proposal this
community has confronted since 1990," said Commissioner Tim Hagan.

But critics say, and research suggests, that casinos can exact a toll on
local economies. They pull money from local businesses and create social
costs, due in part to gambling addiction.

It might be a positive for Cleveland, where two casinos along the Cuyahoga
River "will suck money in from the suburbs," argues Ed Morrison, an
economic-development consultant working on business-growth strategies for
the Cuyahoga County Department of Development.

"But you're basically just taking money out of the home market," Morrison
adds.

Local leaders are intimately familiar with the plan -- a team of business,
labor and city-county elected leaders haggled over the details with
racetrack owners and two prominent developers, Forest City Enterprises Inc.
and investor Jeff Jacobs.