As casino operators break out of their traditional strongholds into new, untapped markets, many operators are embracing the old adage, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

While some operators remain adamantly opposed to the expansion of gambling into their communities, others -- struck by the success of several high-profile chefs and restaurant companies at Las Vegas resorts -- welcome the potential jackpot of partnering with a gambling venture.

"It's just a win-win situation for us and the casino," says Godfrey Polistino, partner and co-founder of Alicart, the parent company of Virgil's and Carmine's in Manhattan's Times Square. In November 2001 Alicart debuted Big Bubba's Barbecue in the 1,400-room addition at the Mohegan Sun casino and resort in Uncasville, Conn.

"In certain respects," Polistino continues, "we enhance the casino, and in other ways they provide a captured clientele interested in our kind of food and price point."

As more communities encourage casino development to jump-start employment and fatten tax bases, sentiments like Polistino's are increasing. But the budding courtship between restaurateurs and casinos has not dulled opposition to casino gambling within the foodservice industry. While not so vociferous as it used to be, resistance to gambling by some industry leaders and independent operators remains strident in such places as New Orleans, Wisconsin and Atlantic City, N.J.

Critics charge that for all the new tax revenues, job creation and economic vitality casinos bring, they also wipe out local operators with food concessions and on-site restaurants that keep gamblers in the resorts and out of the local eateries, especially in places with little tourism.

The divisiveness within the foodservice industry toward casino gambling resurfaced recently when New York Gov. George Pataki signed legislation that paves the way for the Mohawks to build and operate a Las Vegas-style, mega-casino-resort complex in the Catskill Mountains area of the state.

To be located some 100 miles northwest of New York City, the Catskill casino -- currently estimated to cost between $500 million and $700 million to construct -- is expected to put the area back on the map economically.

"There is no denying that there are winners and losers with casino gambling," says Karl Bronlick, a professor of human resources and resort operations in the Department of Restaurant, Hotel, Institutional and Tourism Management at Purdue University. "Some restaurants will go under, but others will thrive.

"There is a lot of anti-casino rhetoric out there that has no factual basis, like, for example, 200 mom-and-pop restaurants closed in Atlantic City [since the late 1980s]. Well, there were never that many independently owned restaurants in Atlantic City in the first place, but you hear that number all the time."

Bronlick says gambling only is going to become more powerful as a catalyst for economic revival, in time infiltrating communities where it currently does not have a presence.

"There is an unfulfilled demand for gaming even though its expansion continues," he asserts. "What happens when a casino comes into a location is that it increases tourism traffic exponentially, and that is what is going to happen in the Catskills.

"People flock there because of the demand for the product, and so you get increased consumption of food and beverage. But the independent operator who tries to sell the same old product without revitalizing his menu or premises is up the creek."

John Wise, director of operations for the Wauwatosa, Wis.-based Bartolotta Restaurant Group, says operators have more to gain than lose in gambling environments. Bartolotta is a diversified foodservice company that consults in the operation, design, and training and hiring procedures of all of the foodservice venues in the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee.

Wise says that despite the Wisconsin Restaurant Association's opposition to the expansion of casino gambling within the state, there has been no evidence that local operators have suffered at the expense of the Potawatomi project.

"You know, we are on both sides," he notes. "We are a vendor and partner in the casino, and we operate our own restaurants throughout the city. Not only are we in the casino, but we have three restaurants in the city and business has actually increased.

"Now, I'm not saying it's due to the casino, but I think in an urban area with strong operators, restaurateurs can hold their own against a casino."

Ark Restaurants, the New York-based multiconcept dinnerhouse company, aggressively has pursued tie-ins at Las Vegas mega-resorts.

"We just think it's the perfect captive market," says Michael Weinstein, the company's president.

Ark opened its first Las Vegas operation in 1997, overseeing room service, banquets, employee dining and both quick-service and fine-dining venues in the New York New York Resort and Casino.

Over the past several years Ark has grown its Las Vegas business and now also operates four restaurants and a food court in the Venetian Casino resort; one restaurant and six food courts in the Aladdin Resort and Casino; and one restaurant in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Shopping Center.

However, for the year ended September 2001, Ark reported a $6.2 million loss, much of it attributed, Weinstein says, to the closing of a restaurant in the Aladdin.

Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, says that while the association has not expressed support for the Catskill project, it is not necessarily opposed to it.

"I don't think anybody would argue with the need to bring a project like this to that area," Sampson says, "because God knows it needs it.

"So it's good for the local economy, but it's bad for our members who are going to lose traffic and employees if this isn't reconfigured in some other way. We all know that for the most part, casino guests do not leave the hotel to eat out once they arrive, and too many times the casino operators raid local operators' staffs for help."

Robert Stewart, spokesman for Park Place Entertainment, lead developer in the Catskill project, says that currently the Mohawks expect to build a 750-room hotel that will include more than 130,000 square feet of gaming space and eight restaurants. There also will be 15,000 square feet of meeting and convention space.

Stewart says he envisions two years of construction with opening day slated for the winter of 2004.

Brian Stys, vice president of restaurant and retail for Shawmut Design and Construction, a Boston-based firm that specializes in retail and restaurant projects, predicts that more casinos and restaurants will marry their operations in the coming years.

The economies of scale, the access to a captive market and the lower investment costs for the restaurateur -- vs. building a stand-alone outlet -- all bode well for more, not fewer, mergers in the future, he notes.

Perhaps more important, Stys says, is that this kind of business marriage survives no matter what the state of the economy is.

"When people are happy and prosperous, there are three things they will always do: eat, drink and gamble," Stys says. "And you know what? When they are depressed and broke, they eat, drink and gamble.

"Now they may not do as much of it in a recession," he continues. "Maybe they will play nickel slots instead of quarter slots or $10 blackjack tables instead of $20. But they are still there."

Shawmut recently participated in the 1,400-room expansion at the Mohegan Sun, where, in addition to Big Bubba's Barbecue, the company also built a clone of Boston chef Jasper White's Summer Shack.

But Joe Saldetta, owner of Momma Mott's, a 27-year-old restaurant located smack dab among the glitter and excitement of Atlantic City's famed gaming establishments, argues that casinos, as they relate to economic growth, are a mixed blessing.

"There hasn't been a new [noncasino] hotel to open in Atlantic City in years," he observes. "Why? Because who can compete with an industry that charges $59 for rooms [weekday promotions] and gives away $240 million in food and alcohol a year? And, by the way, that $240 million was from 1996.

"The casino association stopped publishing its food comps after that, so only God knows what it is today."

Saldetta, who also is the treasurer of the New Jersey Licensed Beverage Association, says his group is trying to lobby the state to allow bars to operate video blackjack and video lottery machines. He adds that the group will donate some profits from the machines in an attempt to revitalize the state's higher-education system.

But he says the casino lobbyists are fighting the effort at every turn.

"These guys know when the Catskills comes on line, there is no way they will be able to protect themselves from the loss in traffic, so they are coming after us," Saldetta surmises. "They want it all for themselves.