Legal gambling has fiscal upsides, social downsides

A homeless person lies on a shaded grassy patch across from the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday, August 18, 2009.

RODNEY CURTIS A homeless person lies on a shaded grassy patch across from the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday, August 18, 2009.

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By Laura A. Bischoff, Staff Writer Updated 10:24 PM Saturday, August 22, 2009

DETROIT — Within the MGM Grand Detroit Casino, customers can grab a Starbucks latte, get a massage at the spa, buy a cocktail dress, sleep in a luxurious king size bed, get cash from the ATM, and dine on everything from Great Lakes walleye to New York strip steaks.

And, of course, they can gamble 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s a self-contained city within a city. And when the gamblers are done, they can hop on a freeway to head out of Detroit with little trouble.

So what’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, but take a wider angle lens and the view through the camera turns to something else. Just a short drive from any of the three multi-million dollar casino complexes are desolate neighborhoods, boarded up shops, vast swaths of long-ago abandoned houses.

And there are Gamblers Anonymous meetings every night of the week, all across the state: “I think there’s a direct correlation between casinos coming into a community and people finding that they have a gambling problem,” said LaNeice Jones of Detroit-based Neighborhood Service Organization, which provides compulsive gambling treatment services and runs the state problem gambling hot line.

The casinos haven’t solved Detroit’s problems. However, there are plenty of people who argue that they’ve made Detroit’s problems a little smaller.

The upside for Detroit and Michigan is jobs and tax revenues. The city and state split a pot of about $300 million a year. And the casinos provide 8,500 jobs — about the same number as in two or three auto plants.

“It’s been good for Detroit,” said MotorCity Casino Hotel Chief Operating Officer Rhonda Cohen.

Still, there are limits to the good fortune. “Sometimes the states and cities believe these places just print money,” Cohen said. “After license fees and taxes and wages and benefits, it’s really not the gravy train people make it out to be.”

Keep reading: Exec: Casinos are ‘a great economic development tool,’ not a silver bullet

Learn more about Issue 3: Casinos on the ballot