Two studies on economic impact of proposed casino are miles apart

Sunday, July 16, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

Beloit residents will vote in a nonbinding referendum Nov. 7 to either support or reject a casino the Bad River Band of Chippewa and the St. Croix Chippewa have proposed along with a hotel and entertainment complex at Interstate 90.

A feasibility study conducted for the tribes by GVA Marquette Advisers of Minneapolis estimated that a casino would attract 4.9 million visitors a year with revenues of about $300 million annually.

Those conclusions were miles apart from a study commissioned for the city that was released Friday.

It said the casino complex is more likely to bring 1.3 million visitors a year with gross yearly receipts of about $100 million.

While the tribal study suggests 3,000 gaming devices and 3,000 employees could be supported, the city's analysis suggests more realistic numbers would be 1,000 gaming devices and 1,200 employees.

The city's economic impact analysis, conducted by Crowe, Chizek and Co. of Indianapolis, said a casino could be viable and would boost the area's economy, but perhaps not as much as the tribes had estimated.

"It is up to the residents of Beloit to decide whether to permit gaming in its community. A $100 million casino can still be a viable gaming operation. There would still be an increased impact to the local economy, just not to the magnitude suggested by the tribes," the Crowe, Chizek study said.

The first part of the city's study will be presented at the Beloit City Council meeting Monday night, while the second part of the study will be released later and will include an analysis of the economic impact of a casino on the community.

The key reason for the different outlooks presented is that, unlike the tribal study, the city's study concludes the casino probably would not be a destination point for people who live more than 100 miles away.

"We believe it is unlikely significant numbers of gaming patrons will travel additional distances in order to visit Beloit, particularly in cases where patrons would have to drive directly past existing competing casinos on their route," the report states.

It said a 500-room hotel and entertainment complex like the one proposed by Rockford, Ill., developer Kurt Carlson probably would not succeed if the casino was not a destination site.

Thomas Ryan, president of the Beloit City Council, said he considers the analysis "a very pessimistic report," and added that he had "quite a bit of confidence in the tribal study."

Ryan said people should evaluate the two studies and said he believed the truth "is going to be somewhere in-between."

Officials with the tribes did not immediately return a telephone message left Saturday by The Associated Press.

Based on the amount of revenue the tribes would receive from the casino, the city and county would negotiate how much money would be paid to the two entities in lieu of property taxes. The land on which the casino would be built would be removed from the tax rolls and placed in trust.