La Crosse Tribune: Casino opponents set for another campaign

Opponents of a casino in La Crosse County are starting to prepare for a possible November referendum.

And while they might not be working under the same umbrella, taverns, churches, hotels, civic clubs and restaurants likely will work toward the same goal: keeping a casino out of the county for moral and economic reasons.

"I don't know that a coalition will be formed, but businesses will be opposed, and the-church and civic groups may get together," said Jeff Woodruff, president of the La Crosse County Tavern League. "There are only X amount of entertainment dollars out there, and we already compete with five casinos."

"I see both groups rallying around this," said the Rev. David Holt of First Evangelical Free Church in La Crosse, who was involved in a similar anti-casino campaign in 1995. "We would really speak out strongly about the moral concerns. La Crosse County is a great place to raise a family, and this would not help that."

The Ho-Chunk Nation, which has asked the county board to hold a casino referendum in November, offers answers to moral and economic arguments against a casino.

They say that all religions don't agree on what constitutes a sin and a casino in La Crosse would bring in many more tourists.

"Each individual is free to choose and free to vote his or her conscience," the nation said Friday in a statement responding to a question from the Tribune. "That is the purpose of a referendum, to give ALL people a voice; and not deny their right to choose."

Lots of people choose to visit the Ho-Chunk casinos in Jackson (500,000 per year), Sauk (3 million) and Wood (950,000) counties, according to the nation's press kit. Tribal officials believe those visitors don't patronize just the casino, but also are customers of local lodging, eating and drinking establishments.

A final report analyzing the impact of a Ho-Chunk casino on the La Crosse area still wasn't complete as of late last week, said Sara Boehm of Ovation Marketing in La Crosse, hired by the tribe to help its referendum campaign.

It's very unlikely the numbers will say anything to soften the opposition of religious groups to the casino.

"God's word is very clear," Holt said. "He doesn't want people involved in this kind of thing. Gambling encourages greed. We're not to be greedy, but content with what we have."

Holt knows that payments from the casino to local governments would cut property taxes but has a maxim from Proverbs to bolster his position that the money isn't worth having: "An inheritance gained quickly at the beginning will not be blessed at the end."

And speaking of blessings, Holt sees Biblical implications if La Crosse gets a casino: "We should want the blessing of God on our community. We lessen the blessing of God on our region the more we get involved in this," he said.

The Downtown Rotary Club hasn't taken a position on the HoChunk casino, but Dr. Sig Gundersen Jr. recently got a rousing cheer from the members when he spoke about the casino and congratulated fellow Rotarian Rev. Robert Cook for his early stand against it.

"I think it's a bad idea," Gundersen said in an interview. "Money isn't everything. Look at the problems with gambling addiction. Where gambling casinos are accessible, the number of people who have gambling addiction goes up. Everybody says it's legal, but it isn't right.

"This is a regressive tax. People who gamble make taxes go down for people like me who don't. But people who are reasonably well off should pay more taxes," Gundersen said.

But there also are many people not well off who would like to pay less property taxes, and the Ho-Chunk hope they will support the casino.

"The nation has been asked by many La Crosse resident taxpayers for some type of relief," tribal spokesman Wade Blackdeer said July 21. "There seems to be a growing group of resident taxpayers who will welcome a casino if the Nation can alleviate some of their property tax burdens."

Woodruff said the tavern league and the lodging association both will oppose a casino, and he believes the restaurant association likely will join in. Representatives of the other groups could not be reached for comment Friday.

"We already have 17 casinos in Wisconsin. Enough is enough," Woodruff said. "The tribes should think about oversaturation."

The proliferation of casinos in the state is prompting formation of a "Casino-Free Wisconsin" organization, said Duane Anderson, a Kenosha Baptist minister and board member of the Kenosha Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

"There's such pressure building for off-reservation Indian casinos that if' it's not resisted we're going to have gambling on every street corner," said Anderson, pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle in Kenosha. "We're trying to summon concerned citizens and say let's top this gambling expansion like the citizens of the state said they wanted to in 1993, when 60 percent of the voters said no more.

Anderson said he hopes La Crosse gambling opponents will join groups from Hudson, Beloit, Kaukauna, Kenosha, Waukesha, Oak Creek, New Berlin and other communities when they meet in Madison Tuesday.