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Would you support a casino in Cedar Rapids?
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Aerial of Penford, May's Island, downtown Cedar Rapids. Veterans Memorial Building. Linn County Courthouse and Cedar River. Shot on Friday, July 20, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)
Businessman and local investor Steve Gray is leading a group of mostly Cedar Rapids investors who want to build a gambling casino here at a cost of $80 million to $100 million and open it in 2016.
“This is a must-do for Cedar Rapids,” says Gray, 54, who is board chairman at ImOn Communications and three other Cedar Rapids firms.
Back in June, it was Gray and his investor group who financed a lengthy, anonymous phone survey that contacted more than 600 Linn County residents to test local attitudes about casino gaming and to ask if they would support a casino in the Cedar Rapids metro area.
Sufficiently promising were those survey results and even more recent ones, Gray said this week, that the group now is beginning the steep uphill climb required in Iowa, home to 18 state-licensed gaming casinos, to turn the idea of a nineteenth casino into reality.
The idea faces an uphill climb, including a potential public referendum and approval from the state Racing and Gaming Commission. But assuming those hurdles can be overcome — would you support a casino in Cedar Rapids?
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NO I would not support a casino, I would rather spend my hard earned money at a local business that actually helps grow the economy, Casinos are a Zero Sum deal for the local economy they do not create wealth as other businesses do they just siphon off some of it.
I know quite a few people from this area who routinely go to Tama, Riverside or Dubuque to gamble. I’d be nice to keep some of that revenue here in Cedar Rapids.
Heck yes! Nobody wants to drive 35 to 120 miles if they dont have to!
Yes, even though I haven’t been to a casino in a half dozen years. I might go occasionally if they were non smoking. I would hope that the investors would want to make this one unique by making it a non smoking casino.
Former State Legislator David Osterberg stated the facts very succinctly the last time private business interests lobbied for a casino cash ripoff to be located in Cedar Rapids; Osterberg stated; “Gambling is a tax on the stupid”. It does not take a genius to figure out the the casino operators win big time, and the public loose on many fronts; the actual cash losses of the gamblers, the public costs that come from foreclosures, bankruptcy, divorce and social disruption that come in the wake of a false gambling economy.
The illusion of economic gain is offset by the huge real costs transferred to the community in general. Cedar Rapids has voted no on the gambling option and since we have a well educated citizenry, we will not have a “tax on the stupid” instituted in this community, There are suckers born every minute, so take your game on down the road to find your victims.
The biggest “tax on the stupid” is the state sponsored lottery. The house take from the lottery is much higher than it is at casinos. If Michael opposes casinos, he should also be speaking out about the lottery.
Just for comparison, the Iowa Lottery had $271 million in revenue in FY2011. That is about $80 million more than the highest earning casino in Iowa ($190 million at Prairie Meadows) — but well below the $1.4 billion in revenue at all of Iowa’s casinos. Also noteworthy, the lottery put about $65 million into Iowa’s general fund while casinos paid a total of $287 million in state taxes, not including millions more paid in city and county taxes.
Mr Greer is quite correct the bulk of Mr Richards complaints are moot because the State Lottery is quite capable of providing for those results. The State Lottery is in effect Voluntary Taxation. Both however take money out of the local economy and do not grow it. The question was do I support Local Gambling not whether I will oppose it. I figure folks have the right to make their own choices even stupid ones, but this will NOT IMO enhance our community.
Yes, I would support a casino. Bus the people to CR and help offset the cost of our economic development. I would like to see it located in the downtown area with ample parking. Trolleys and or carriages could be made available to transport people to hotel/convention center, New Bo and Czech Village area.
Absolutely I would support this happening. Far to long has this area gone without, that it may not even be a certainty the racing commission would allow it.