Ho-Chunk pushing launch of Madison casino
Dane referendum to influence Doyle decision
By STEVE SCHULTZE sschultze@journalsentinel.com, Journal Sentinel
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Once viewed as the state's staunchest anti-casino stronghold, Madison stands on the brink of becoming the latest high-profile Wisconsin gambling venue.
The Ho-Chunk Nation, second only to the Forest County Potawatomi in annual gambling revenue among Wisconsin tribes, is pushing hard to win approval from Dane County voters for converting its Madison DeJope bingo hall into a full-fledged casino with slot machines, blackjack, craps and roulette.
Just how big and with what amenities remain to be seen. The tribe hasn't divulged details but says it will add hundreds of jobs at the site near I-90 on Madison's far southeast side and is reserving the option to include live stage acts and add a hotel.
The plan goes before Dane County voters in an advisory referendum Feb. 17 and has flushed out an opposition citizens group that includes downtown businesses and tavern owners. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz says he is personally against the casino, and prominent former Mayor Paul Soglin has joined the effort to stop the casino.
But fissures have developed in the old Madison wall of resistance to gambling.
The Ho-Chunk are offering about $3.5 million a year each to city and county government -- not a staggering sum, but significant in the context of current ultra-tight budgets. And it sounds even more alluring with the spin the tribe likes to put on the payments -- $91 million expected through 2016.
"It's $91 million minimum over the next few years, and it can go up, based on the success of the enterprise," said tribal attorney Ken Artis.
Local agreements the tribe negotiated with the city and county allow for annual payments to rise beyond the $3.5 million figure Madison and Dane County each would get by 2006, if the DeJope casino take exceeds about $75 million a year.
The tribe hasn't released revenue projections for DeJope, but the local payment offer suggests a substantial operation. The tribe's combined "net win" -- total money wagered minus prize payouts -- was about $241 million in 2001 at its other three casinos, including its flagship site near Wisconsin Dells.
Difficult odds
Opposition leaders sound far from confident they can prevail in the vote.
"If the referendum were held today, the casino wins," largely on the basis of the payment offer, said Bob D'Angelo, president of the Madison Cultural Arts District.
D'Angelo and local theater operators fear the casino will drive up costs of booking live acts. "I don't know if the horses are here to overcome the lure of however many tens of millions of dollars (the tribe) has agreed to pay the city and county," he said.
D'Angelo said he expects Ho-Chunk to bankroll a high-end advertising campaign leading up to the referendum. Artis said only that the tribe would conduct a broad campaign in support of a "yes" vote.
The Ho-Chunk have long sought state approval for a Madison casino but were unable to secure a road map toward that goal until this year, when Gov. Jim Doyle negotiated a new state-tribal gaming compact.
DeJope opened in 1999 as a bingo hall, including slot-like machines that required no state or local approval.
The new compact encouraged but didn't require a referendum as an expression of local sentiment to help the governor pass judgment on a Madison casino. Doyle will follow the voters' decision in the referendum, said Doyle spokesman Josh Morby.
Because 4 acres of the DeJope site already are designated federal trust land, no further approval would be needed for the casino.
The arguments for and against the casino parallel those made in Milwaukee in 1998, when the Potawatomi tribe sought local approval for expanding its casino in the Menomonee Valley, offering the city and county several million dollars a year.
Negative impact seen
Opponents charge that the Madison casino would drain the lifeblood from its downtown and hurt smaller entertainment venues and restaurants. Gambling is a vice that would lead to more crime, bankruptcies and social problems, they say.
Moreover, the local Ho-Chunk payments would be offset by hidden casino costs, such as social services to families harmed by gambling addiction, said David Relles, a Madison lawyer and co-founder of opposition group No Dane Casino.
Gambling generally settles in hard-luck communities, not top- ranked locales such as Madison, with its low unemployment and high- quality lifestyle, Relles said.
"We don't need it," D'Angelo said. "This is a great town."
Despite his personal opposition and his city's historic aversion to gambling, Cieslewicz offered reasons why the casino might win public approval: The referendum includes rural areas outside Madison, where there's likely more support; and the tribe will heavily promote reasons to vote "yes."
And, Cieslewicz said, "I don't think casino gambling is quite the shock to the system that it was 10 years ago."
The Madison casino plan is the leading gambling expansion proposal among Wisconsin's 11 tribes. But it's by no means the only one. The Ho-Chunk Nation also is scouting locations in the Chicago metropolitan area for a casino site, and it is expanding its string of Wisconsin convenience store-casinos.
The Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee tribes are pursuing efforts to place casinos in upstate New York. Three Chippewa bands have proposals for off-reservation casinos: the Lac du Flambeau want a casino in Shullsburg; and the Bad River and St. Croix Chippewa want one in Beloit.
And the Potawatomi tribe is preparing for a major expansion of its Milwaukee casino but is holding off while a lawsuit challenging the legality of new gambling compacts works its way through the courts.
For more on the issue, go to a Web site supporting the Madison casino, www.yesontheagreements.org/, and one opposing, www.nodanecasino.com/
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