Only be for a short time if most of the out of town Clientele is lost if a .
casino Is opened closer to them. After that happens the Local economy will .
go down tremendously. The casino could go out of business and Allot of .
people could lose there jobs and the area would be left in an Economic .
recession. If most of the clientele is made up of local .
People then that money they are spending in the casino is only being taken .
From the local economy because if that money wouldn't have gone to the .
Casino it would have gone to the Movie theaters are to the bowling ally. .
Casinos can be good for a city, but in allot of cases they end up bad as in .
Billings Montana. This is taken from an interview given by the mayor of this .
Town Margaret Warner 5 years ago.
" The year before gambling was introduced in Montana, we had zero .
pawn shops and six secondhand stores in Billings. Our population at .
that time was about 65,000 people. Now we have 48 casinos in .
Billings, we have a population of 85,000, and we have .
about 49 pawnshops, and other shops that pay cash money for used .
merchandise. We don't believe that a proliferation of pawnshops and .
secondhand stores is progressive economic development. .
Casinos offer $4.95 T-bone steaks to encourage the public to .
come in and gamble. In the past 10 years, locally-owned restaurants .
have been going out of business left and right because they have no .
way to compete. In the 10 years since gambling began, our county .
attorney's office has seen a quadrupling of bad check cases. But .
the economy, Margaret, is only one issue. Another is good .
government. We should, in my opinion, be in the, in the business of .
protecting citizens from that which they cannot protect themselves, .
to ensure equal opportunity, to be concerned about the general .
health and welfare and to reflect the common values that bind us .
together as a community. Now the city of Billings gets 13.