Columnist Jeff German: Chicago hoping to beat odds

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

No matter how loud the religious right speaks out against it, legalized gambling continues to be seen as the economic savior for communities across the country.

This week Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was so impressed with gambling's potential to boost the Windy City's struggling economy that he suggested it was time the city ran its own casino.

Just keeping Michael Jordan close to home whenever he gets the urge to play blackjack probably is enough to enrich Chicago's coffers.

Daley proposed building in downtown Chicago a city-owned casino that, in his estimation, could bring in $300 million a year in new revenue and create 2,500 jobs.

If his idea catches on, Chicago would be the only city in America in the casino business.

The proposal would have to be approved by the Illinois Legislature, where some of Daley's fellow Democrats have suggested expanding legalized gambling to make a dent in the state's $1.7 billion budget deficit. Illinois currently has nine licensed riverboat casinos, four of them on the outskirts of Chicago.

Opposition to more gambling in the state remains vocal, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who ran for office on a promise to oppose gambling's expansion, announced Tuesday afternoon that he was against opening a casino in the heart of the country's third-largest city.

And not only is the religious right fighting Daley's proposal, but so is the casino industry.

So there's no telling what the Legislature will end up doing.

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, said his organization is opposed in principle to government-run casinos.

Governments, Fahrenkopf said, should not be regulating and operating casinos at the same time. That can lead to conflicts of interest.

Yet Fahrenkopf isn't surprised by Daley's proposal. Cities and states, he said, are finding the economic benefits of gambling hard to resist, as they struggle to balance their books with as little financial impact on voters as possible.

"It remains a very attractive way to raise revenue without raising taxes," Fahrenkopf said. "It's the reason why Tennessee, a Bible Belt state that didn't have any gambling, recently approved a state lottery."

And it's why some New Jersey lawmakers want to legalize sports betting in Atlantic City.

Avoiding the T-word, however, isn't the only reason local and state governments feel comfortable turning to legalized gambling. According to the latest AGA poll, 85 percent of Americans accept gambling as a legitimate recreational activity.

But the Rev. Tom Grey, director of the Illinois-based National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said grassroots opposition to the spread of gambling also remains strong.

Of the 46 proposals in 30 states last year to expand gambling, Grey's organization claims to have beaten back 43 of them.

Grey said the coalition has achieved its success by pointing out that gambling is nothing but a quick fix that ends up creating more social harm than economic good.

"We hold the winning hand," Grey said. "Our best days are ahead of us."

But if that's true, why are big-city mayors such as Richard Daley still looking to defy the odds?