THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 TAG: 9501240284
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Professor Robert Goodman says he grew up in a pool hall, has played poker and occasionally will place a bet in a casino. So when he argues against gambling, it's not on a moral basis.
But Goodman, who has just completed a book on the resurgence of gambling in this country, believes it's a lousy way to develop an economy.
``There are times with economic development strategies when the cure is worse than the illness,'' Goodman said from Amherst, Mass., where he is a professor at Hampshire College. ``I think gambling is an example of that. It allows people to dig deeper holes for themselves.''
Goodman, whose book ``The Luck Business: America and the Culture of Chance'' is due out later this year, will speak at 7 p.m. today at Maury High School. Bill Kincaid of Virginians Deserve Better, an advocacy group opposing gambling, will also speak at the meeting, which is being sponsored by The Norfolk Community News.
On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Goodman will take his argument to the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond for a formal debate on whether the commonwealth should legalize riverboat gambling. The General Assembly is considering the issue, and Wednesday's debate could kick-start public debate.
Arguing the anti-gambling position by Goodman's side will be Del. J. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake.
They will be opposed by Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, and Michael D. Rose, chairman of PROMUS Companies Inc. Jones is chief sponsor of the bill that would legalize riverboat gambling.
PROMUS, which evolved out of Holiday Inns of America, has moved into casino development. PROMUS owns casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City, and riverboat casinos in Mississippi and Illinois.
Goodman, a professor of environmental design and planning, has a degree in architecture. His study of gambling grew out of his work with urban planning and economic development issues. He is the author of ``After the Planners,'' a study of urban renewal, and ``The Last Entrepreneurs,'' a study of regions competing for industries.
Gambling, Goodman says, is just the latest example of government looking for quick fixes for failed economies and assorted urban ills.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Goodman said, the cure-all was urban renewal. Cities tore down old offices, stores and homes with the expectation that richer businesses and homes would take their place. It seldom happened, Goodman said.
``The idea was that you could just remove the buildings, and the people and the cities would be magically revitalized,'' Goodman said. ``But cities are economic entities. They are prosperous based on what they produce, not by simply moving people around from one part of the city to another.''
``There are still cities with chain-link fences surrounding large open spaces, often parking lots,'' Goodman said. ``Urban renewal was the magic bullet of the 1950s and 1960s.''
In the last decade, cities and states have competed for jobs and industries by offering subsidies and tax breaks.
The problem with these quick fixes is that they don't generate new wealth by the production of a new good or service, Goodman said.
``Just moving jobs from one part of a country to another is not economic development,'' Goodman said, ``nor is gambling enterprises that simply attract dollars out of other local businesses.''
In the past, Goodman said, cities believed they could copy Las Vegas and get rich by sucking gambling dollars from neighboring states or cities. But gambling is becoming so widespread that most gambling dollars now come from within the community where the casinos are located.
``If you are depending on local people, all you are doing is siphoning consumer dollars out of your local economy,'' Goodman said. That means the $100 someone might lose gambling is money he or she might have spent on a car or put into a savings account.
In Illinois, 98 percent of the gambling customers come from within the state, Goodman said, and at the new casino in Montreal 85 percent of the customers come from within the metropolitan area.
``I don't have any problem with people having it, if they want it,'' Goodman said of legalized gambling. ``But it's basically been promoted by politicians and gambling interests. To say there is a movement for it is not true.''
True economic development, Goodman said, is a slow process.
``A person that saves a factory with 20 jobs, doesn't get the same kind of attention as someone who says he is going to bring in a casino,'' Goodman said. ``Economic development is a task of supporting thousands of smaller industries.''
Thomas M. Mountjoy, a cruise-ship operator and leader of the Riverboat Council, an advocacy group favoring riverboat casinos, said Goodman makes big generalizations that don't stand up on a case-by-case basis.
``He's taking everything that relates to all gambling, and putting the burden of all gambling problems on riverboat casinos in Virginia,'' Mountjoy said. ``We're only going to have seven riverboats.''
KEYWORDS: RIVERBOAT GAMBLING CASINOS by CNB