9/24/06 York Dispatch/ channel 21 poll 1,369 votes, 69.8% NO
9/20/06 WGAL poll, 8,092 votes, 37% yes and 63% NO
2/28/2006, CNN.com poll, 91,991 responded, 72% opposed the Gettysburg site.
4/24/06 Frederick News Post Poll, 73% opposed the Gettysburg site.
National Editorials:
N.Y. Times, “Gettysburg is no place for a casino.” Hartford Courant: “as inconceivable as poker at Plymouth Rock or baccarat at Ellis Island.” Pitt Post-Gazette: “Gettysburg is to America what Jerusalem is to the world's leading religions.” Columbus, Ohio Dispatch: “Gettysburg has to be the worst place in Pennsylvania for a casino.” York Daily Record: “simply a bad bet for Gettysburg”. New London Day: “No casino at site of Gettysburg address” Providence Journal calls it as offensive as a: “Ground Zero Casino and Resort”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06333/741920-109.stm Don't gamble with Gettysburg Pennsylvania should not allow a casino to be built within cannon range of the battlefield, argue Jim Lighthizer, Tom Kiernan and Richard Moe Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Almost a century and a half after President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, a proposed casino threatens Gettysburg's legacy and future.
(Jim Lighthizer is president of the Civil War Preservation Trust. Tom Kiernan is president of the National Parks Conservation Association. Richard Moe is president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Their organizations have joined to form the Stop the Gettysburg Slots Coalition (www.stopthegettysburgslots.org).
On Nov. 19, 1863, Lincoln immortalized the more than 50,000 soldiers who were killed or wounded in the battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle in the war to preserve the Union. He said, "We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." Imagine what Lincoln would think of the latest battle raging over this hallowed ground.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is considering a highly controversial application to build a casino within cannon range of Gettysburg National Military Park. For history lovers and local residents alike, locating a slots parlor so close to Cemetery Ridge and this historic family-friendly town seems unthinkable. But the applicants not only are serious, they have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to winning this license.
To ensure the success of this application, the investors at Chance Enterprises have touted unsubstantiated projections that claim hundreds of new jobs and thousands of new tourist dollars will accrue if gambling is brought to town. The facts belie Chance's claims.
Chance's application repeatedly overestimates the number of visitors its slots parlor would attract -- a key figure on which it bases its revenue projections. Chance predicts at least a half-million more overnight visitors annually, but only mega casinos in Las Vegas or Atlantic City draw this number of gamblers. Reputable studies conducted by the gambling industry indicate much smaller numbers for a casino of this size, which would drastically reduce the number of projected jobs created and community revenue generated.
The casino also would damage the existing heritage tourism and economic infrastructure of the community. Common sense tells us that casinos bring with them an atmosphere that could drive away heritage travelers. Families with young children visit Gettysburg for its wholesome, historic, family-friendly environment, and parents feel comfortable sending their children to Gettysburg College for many of the same reasons.
Chance also fails to recognize that Gettysburg already has a very low unemployment rate, due in large part to its strong economic engine, Gettysburg National Military Park. According to the National Park Service, in fiscal year 2005 Gettysburg National Military Park drew approximately $102 million to the region, with visitor expenditures supporting 2,431 full-time job equivalents in the area surrounding the park. Heritage tourists like those at Gettysburg tend to spend more money per visit than other tourists, on average.
Furthermore, Chance fails to address the immense damage a casino would inflict on existing businesses in Gettysburg and throughout Adams County. The investors' proposal and supplementary documents totally ignore the inevitable shift of revenue from locally run stores, restaurants and hotels to the casino, which is largely owned by outside investors. Estimates place this diverted income at approximately $60 million per year -- a sizable chunk of the total retail- and service-sector spending in small, chiefly rural Adams County.
Time and again Pennsylvanians have voiced their strong belief that Gettysburg is not an appropriate location for a casino. A statewide poll conducted in October 2006 showed that 64 percent of state residents opposed the proposal. In Central Pennsylvania, where the casino would directly and adversely affect lives and businesses, that figure was 73 percent. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has repeatedly stated his opposition to the plan, as well, saying on the Pennsylvania Cable Network, "I wouldn't want it anywhere close to the historic area of Gettysburg."
Visitors to Gettysburg have an unsurpassed opportunity to follow in the footsteps of America's heroes. Whether you visit Gettysburg frequently or have only learned about the events of 1863 in history class, you know there is only one Gettysburg.
As the Gaming Control Board considers Chance Enterprises' application, we urge each member to carefully examine its many oversights, unanswered questions, exaggerations and unsubstantiated claims, and then deny this proposal that could take away the historic charm that makes Gettysburg a national treasure.
Keep Gettysburg as hallowed ground
DAN SIDERIO York Daily Record/Sunday News
Article Launched:11/12/2006 02:18:03 AM EST
Nov 12, 2006 — The following is a true story: In August of 1939, in Hollywood, Calif., RKO Movie Studios began filming "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo. The picture starred actress Maureen O'Hara and the great English actor, Charles Laughton. The movie was shot using a 15-acre recreation of 15th century Paris, France, including Notre Dame Cathedral.
A few weeks later, on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland marking the beginning of World War II.
Charles Laughton was very upset at this news, knowing that his beloved England would soon be drawn into a world war. He sat and brooded on the set that day, then finally arose and went to the pillars of Notre Dame Cathedral, leaned against them and began to speak.
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal ..."
The entire cast and crew, hundreds of people, stood mesmerized as Laughton continued reciting the Gettysburg Address completely from memory, all the while dressed as his movie character, Quasimodo, the Hunchback. "... we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground ..."
According to a report of the incident: "Time stood still as the words rolled off his tongue and danced in the air building to astounding, powerful crescendos of eloquence."
"... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
It must have seemed to all those present that he was delivering both a prayer and a battle cry.
At his moment of deepest despair, this citizen of England, distraught at the thought of war coming to his native soil, chose to recite the Gettysburg Address for all to hear. This was an enormous validation of the power and the timelessness of President Lincoln's healing words and showed just how much Gettysburg, Pa., meant to the people of the free world in 1939.
Two days later, England and France declared war on Germany.
Today, another war is being fought over the future of this historic town and battlefield and the special place that they hold in the hearts and minds of the citizens of America and the citizens of the world.
If Charles Laughton were here today, I know that he would be horrified to learn that a gambling casino had been proposed anywhere near the site of that immortal speech, that he so loved. Mr. Laughton's voice speaks to us now from the past, once again as a prayer and a call to battle, asking us to honor and to protect the image of this national treasure for all future generations.
We know that England, with the help of the United States, emerged victorious at the end of World War II.
Hopefully, Gettysburg will also emerge victorious and remain "hallowed ground."
Dan Siderio lives in Gettysburg.
What?! Casino Money Comes with a Price? Evening Sun, 7/26/06
Wherever you stand on the Gettysburg casino, you have to admit there's a defensible logic to the borough testifying in favor of slots to the Gaming Control Board in April. Promised a minimum of a million bucks a year, members of the borough council could honestly say the casino would be good for the local economy. If someone gave us a million bucks, we'd be hard pressed to testify it would hurt.
But while the council was willing to testify to the benefits of slots payouts, it seems reluctant to put that in writing. The deal with investor group Chance Enterprises came up lemons last week when the borough finance committee balked at language supporting the slots parlor. In exchange for up to $2 million (state money would be subtracted from the casino's contribution), Chance wanted the following endorsement: "By entering into this agreement, the grantee agrees that the grantor's gaming facility offers the Adams County region and public and private interests and excellent economic benefit." Council President Ted Streeter, who voted to support the casino project, said he didn't want to engage in endorsement or condemnation, or speculation about an uncertain future. That's not what he told gaming regulators in April. Back then, he testified the council supported the project because the money guaranteed by Chance would help the borough. "We would consider ourselves derelict of our duty if we were to turn down the possibility of doing so from a source other than our borough taxpayers, upon whom we have relied for so long," Streeter said.
OK, that's not exactly as glowing as Chance's language, but it sure sounds like an endorsement to us. Maybe Chance would settle for a word less enthusiastic than "excellent." The deal could read "pretty good" economic benefit, or economic benefits "better than raising taxes or a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."
But whatever the final language, it's time for the borough to put its mouth where its money is. If any of the six council members who voted to support a casino (Marty Qually, Dick Peterson and John Murphy voted against) want to take back their bet, they'll have to explain the ugly logic of their flip-flop.
If they don't really believe in the economic benefits of a slots parlor, it could be the no-casino folks were right all along – they take bribes. Or maybe they object to the language about the casino being good for the entire "Adams County region." Maybe they honestly believe the casino's money will be good for Gettysburg but won't do their neighbors any favors. In April, Streeter wouldn't say the agreement was predicated on positive testimony. Instead, he said he thought the borough was positioning itself for Chance to look favorably when considering whether to compensate Gettysburg for the increased traffic and other costs a casino could bring.
"If I were Chance, I would look less favorably on granting the borough money (if we'd testified against the proposal)," Streeter said. "Let's be real."
But it was Chance CEO David LeVan who was being real when he said outright the money was offered for favorable testimony. "If they're worthy of the benefits, then they should help," he said. "It is only fair they'd support it."
LeVan's nemesis, No Casino Gettysburg chairwoman Susan Star Paddock, said this to the council in April: "The whole world is watching you tonight, and your ethics will be abundantly clear to everyone." It looks like she may have been right – just a little bit premature.
In slots wars, money talks
Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, 4/17/06
CNHI News Service
— We can’t say we were surprised that the Gettysburg Borough Council voted 7-3 to support a slot machine gambling casino near the battlefield where the tide of the Civil War was turned.
We can’t say we are pleased about it, either.
The deciding point, of course, was a promise of at least $1 million a year in additional revenue to the borough.
It reminds us of the old story about the young woman who insisted, “I’m not that kind of girl,” until the rich man asked her if she would lower her moral standards for $1 million – and she said she might for that much money.
When he offered a smaller amount, she again insisted she was not “that kind of girl.” The man said, “We’ve already established what you are; we’re just haggling over the price.”
We like to think of the battlefield where 7,000 died and 30,000 were wounded as hallowed ground, as President Lincoln said in his famous address. Somehow, it is hard to think of “hallowed” in connection with a gambling hall.
Gettysburg has been reaping the benefits of being the site of a great Civil War slaughter almost since the battle 143 years ago. Gettysburg National Military Park and Gettysburg National Cemetery are tremendous drawing cards for tourists and other Civil War buffs, people who already spend a lot of money in that area.
The council president said he favored a casino because the money from it would “help the borough improve its police capabilities and social services to deal with an influx of millions of gamblers.”
If that is the case, the borough wouldn’t need the extra money if the casino doesn’t come there. Just say, ‘No dice!’
Casino plan is insult to what Gettysburg means to Americans
Saturday, April 08, 2006 Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Gettysburg’s municipal Web site brags that it’s "the most famous small town in America." Had not two large American armies battled there 143 years ago, few people outside of south-central Pennsylvania would know much about the place.
Does the state of Pennsylvania really want to degrade Gettysburg’s value as a memorial to Civil War valor by adding a casino with 3,000 slot machines? Many people in the area say no; anticasino petitions have more than 60,000 signatures.
But gambling interests are a determined lot, adept at throwing enough money at officials to buy their support. Gettysburg’s local council voted 6-3 on Monday to support the Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa, about 3 miles from the Gettysburg National Military Park. The council’s support came after promoters pledged at least $1 million in annual allocations to the community. Opponents called it a bribe.
Gettysburg is hugely popular with history buffs for its battleground monuments, poignant cemetery, old inns and quaint streets. President Abraham Lincoln said the Civil War’s most-famous battleground was consecrated by soldiers’ blood.
The state’s Gaming Control Board, which will make the final decision on Crossroads’ application for a license, is holding public hearings on the project. Civil War enthusiasts, area residents, historians and others need to slap down this harebrained scheme before it becomes a reality.
Regular visitors to Gettysburg are overwhelmingly opposed to the casino, the opponents’ polls say. That’s hardly surprising. Devotees of U.S. history often aren’t interested in the same things as gamblers. The gambling promoters obviously want to broaden the demographics of Gettysburg tourism.
Residents are worried that the proposed hotel-casino complex would bring traffic snarls and crime to their picturesque area. Their worries aren’t misplaced.
Even an American shrine can become fair game when enough money is tossed around.
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Insulting idea for Gettysburg
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Casino would violate sacred land and town should have higher standards
4/9/2006 , Buffalo
The nation won the first battle of Gettysburg, but a new one is under way and this adversary is not likely to be so foolish as to mount an open-field charge. Some of America's most sacred acreage is at risk as a casino operator bids to establish a gambling hall just outside the town and near Gettysburg National Military Park. It's a horrible idea.
It's true that the Pennsylvania burg has long been commercialized, as American entrepreneurialism seeks to profit from the tourists who come to absorb the scene of the most important battle fought on American soil. This is different. It's a corruption of the place; an insult to the Union and Confederate soldiers who were slaughtered by the thousands and lay buried in this hallowed ground. Come to historic Gettysburg: Honor the dead, play the slots.
Imagine if this were to happen at ground zero in Manhattan. It wouldn't. The wounds are too fresh, the memories too harrowing. But if it's not right now, it won't be right 143 years from now, either.
Gettysburg's borough council last week voted to support the casino in exchange for a $1 million-a-year revenue guarantee. As Western New Yorkers have learned, though, casino revenues can be unreliable, as well as enticing. But this is about much more than a potential municipal windfall. It's about the nation's priorities. Gettysburg gets the tourist dollars it does because it is a national resource. The nation should have something to say about this.
Tell your congressman if you object, and check out www.civilwar.org, Web site of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
A fighting chance
editorial 12/19/05
Evening Sun
Maybe Chance Enterprises is drawing on the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln in its belated recognition that to win the war, it may first have to win the hearts and minds. In "Lincoln at Gettysburg," author Garry Wills casts the president's Gettysburg Address as just such a public relations tour de force. The battle left 50,000 Americans killed, wounded or missing, but the war would go on another two bloody years. People wanted to know how the enemy had been allowed to cover southcentral Pennsylvania in a swath of human misery, and why that enemy hadn't been crushed, the rebellion ended, then and there.
"It would have been hard to predict that Gettysburg, out of all this muddle, these missed chances, all the senseless deaths, would become a symbol of national purpose, pride, and ideals," Wills writes. "Abraham Lincoln transformed the ugly reality into something rich and strange - and he did it with 272 words. The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration."
Lincoln's strategy started with blurring the battle's particulars. He never names the Union Army or its commander, George Meade. He never even mentions the name Gettysburg.
Earlier this month, Chance announced that its proposed slots casino in Straban Township would no longer be named "Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa." Instead, we now have "Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa."
The old name, the company says, may have misled folks into thinking the slots would be on or near the battlefield. (In fact, the site is less than a mile from the closest park boundary at East Cavalry Field, but closer to three miles from the main battlefield south of the borough.) Still, the crossroads image is appropriate to the battle. The 10 roads that intersect at Gettysburg brought the armies there in July 1863, and Chance proponents say they will now bring tourists to enrich the state and local coffers.
And no doubt Chance hopes it will prove an apt metaphor for its own battle to win one of the two slots-parlor licenses available statewide. Chance hopes it has reached a turning point in a public relations war that so far seems an unbroken string of its enemy's victories.
No Casino Gettysburg has united Civil War preservationists and gambling opponents in its fight to keep a casino far away from sacred ground. They've deployed evidence on the high social cost of gaming. Local and national surveys show public opinion is on their side.
But after months of keeping their heads down, avoiding the press and public comment, Chance investors are finally fighting back. The company recently released its own study, touting the proposed casino's economic benefits - new jobs, new tax revenue, more than enough to pay for any gambling casualties. Investors are now returning calls, giving reassuring interviews that good corporate citizens can mitigate the social costs.
And beyond the hard-core preservation and anti-gaming communities, there are likely folks whose sentiments aren't that strong, who will hear the bugle call of jobs and prosperity. Chance now faces another challenge on its flank. A pair of Lancaster lawyers has announced their own casino plan, bringing the total of license-seekers so far to seven. We can't imagine that in conservative Lancaster County they'll fare any better in the battle for public support. But it seems a pretty safe bet the southcentral Pennsylvania will get one of the two licenses. No doubt, state regulators will have to consider both local sentiment and what makes the most economic sense for the cash-strapped state. But all seven sites can make a good economic case - victory may hinge on home-front support. We're not ready to pick any winners here - it might take a real Abraham Lincoln to convince people around here a casino is in their best interests. But it seems to us Chance is back in this fight.
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL OPPOSES GETTYSBURG CASINO
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/opinion/27lighthizer.html?pagewanted=print
September 27, 2005
Gambling With History
By JAMES LIGHTHIZER
Washington — The mere mention of Gettysburg conjures up images of beautiful, rolling Pennsylvania farmland and stone monuments commemorating the soldiers who fought there 142 years ago. Nearly two million tourists visit Gettysburg each year to pay tribute to the place where, as Abraham Lincoln said, this nation was given "a new birth of freedom."
Sadly, there are investors who simply do not understand what Gettysburg means to the United States. They want to build a casino in the shadow of this great national landmark.
These developers say they will create a tasteful establishment, one that will be in keeping with the area's historic character and appeal to both battlefield visitors and fans of gambling. Like casino proponents elsewhere in the country, the Gettysburg investors tempt local officials with promises of jobs and money. But most of these investors will have left town by the time residents discover how empty those promises are. According to economists who study the effects of casinos on local communities, for every $1 million a casino brings in, $3 million is needed for basic infrastructure and services. If this casino is built, the only prediction likely to prove true is that it will destroy the Gettysburg that generations of Americans have come to cherish.
Of course, the casino's developers argue that the site they have chosen is not "battlefield" land. What they fail to realize, however, is that historical significance does not stop at the edges of the national park. Roads into and out of town were of huge consequence to the battle. Practically every farmhouse and barn for miles was used as a field hospital for the wounded and dying.
Regardless of how careful and sensitive the developers think their plans are, building a casino at Gettysburg will destroy the town's character. Poorly managed growth and traffic already plague Gettysburg, and the casino will make congestion worse. It's true that historians are already appalled at the encroachments that souvenir shops and big-box stores have made on parts of the battlefield, but the size of the 42-acre complex, and the pawn shops and check-cashing stores that the 2,500 slots will likely generate, are far worse than anything that's currently there.
And rather than bringing jobs, the casino could easily damage the region's economic vitality. My organization recently released a study detailing the economic benefits of battlefield preservation, and the results are clear: Gettysburg National Military Park is the cornerstone of the local economy. Each year out-of-town visitors spend $121 million in Gettysburg stores, hotels and restaurants, for an average of $76.53 per person, per day. That concentration of spending and patronage supports 2,653 full-time jobs in the community, beyond those necessary to keep the park in operation. Furthermore, taxes on that spending generate more than $17.2 million in state and local revenue.
The casino developers maintain that their enterprise will appeal to both heritage tourists and travelers who might not have come for the history alone. But in July, local anti-casino volunteers questioned 300 tourists: 96 percent were opposed to building a casino in the area, 81 percent felt it would be a desecration to do so at Gettysburg and 53 percent would not return if a casino were built nearby.
Even Gov. Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, who was a driving force behind the state's gambling legislation, said this month that he opposed placing slots in historical places that draw families. Having a casino anywhere near Gettysburg, he said, would debase the experience of children visiting this "great historic shrine." Unfortunately, Mr. Rendell contends that the final decision is up to an independent commission. But the governor and the Legislature appointed the commission members and are ultimately responsible for their decision.
Building a casino at Gettysburg would be more than a gamble; it would be folly. It cheapens the sacrifice of those who gave "the last full measure of devotion" on that field. Casinos are everywhere, but there's only one Gettysburg.
James Lighthizer is the president of the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The Civil War Preservation Trust, which strongly opposes a plan for a $200 million slot machine casino near the historic Gettysburg battlefield, was pleased with a statement by Gov. Ed Rendell last week. On the Pennsylvania Cable Network, Rendell, former mayor of Philadelphia, said, "I wouldn't want a casino two blocks from the Liberty Bell and, if it were my decision, I wouldn't want it anywhere close to the historic area of Gettysburg. You don't want to have young children seeing a casino next to a great historic shrine.'' Trust President James Lighthizer applauded Rendell.
"We could not agree more with his remarks about the casino plan. Gettysburg is America's most sacred shrine to our nation's Civil War dead.''
But wait a minute, Rendell press secretary Kate Philips said this week. Don't read too much into his statement. "The governor has his personal opinion on the Gettysburg casino, and it's that Gettysburg already has phenomenal attractions in its historic features.''
But, she claimed, "The governor has neither a role nor influence in where casinos are located in Pennsylvania.'' In that respect, she added, "His personal opinion doesn't matter.''
Doesn't matter? No influence? Some may find that hard to swallow, since Rendell, the state's most important public official, named three of the seven members of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. That's the powerful group which, by late next year, will decide where the state's five new non-racetrack casinos will be located. One of them could be just outside Gettysburg. (The other four board members were named by legislative leaders.)
"The governor cannot dictate to the commission,'' Philips insisted.
Lighthizer disagreed, saying, "The governor greatly underestimates his influence with the gaming board. The governor and state Legislature appointed the gaming board members and are ultimately responsible for any decisions made by those appointees. To argue otherwise, as the governor's press spokesperson has repeatedly tried to do, isn't likely to fool anyone.''
Stay tuned. The battle over the proposed Gettysburg casino is far from over.
No, it’s not “Family Feud.” It’s the dueling surveys about a proposed Gettysburg slots casino that have people arguing numbers. Earlier this week, the local opposition group, No Casino Gettysburg, released the results of a survey conducted a few weeks ago during Gettysburg’s annual re-enactment weekend. Volunteers for the group surveyed 300 tourists on the streets of Gettysburg.
The results were startling: 96 percent indicated they did not support the proposed casino plan.
And another alarming number – 53 percent – said they would not return to Gettysburg post-casino.
Don’t believe it, said a spokesman for Chance Enterprises, the investors group that hopes to develop the casino on Route 30 east of town. That survey was biased, said John Brabender. It can’t be believed because of the way the questions were worded. And besides, he added, we don’t know how the volunteer questioners presented themselves.
We agree that the questions probably could have been worded a bit more objectively.
The first question – the one that drew a 96 percent “no” – was fairly straightforward: “Would you encourage a gambling casino in Gettysburg?”
But the second question certainly was more tilted: “Would you return to Gettysburg if it were a major gambling casino center?”
Referring to Gettysburg as a “major gambling center” is a bit over the top, calling to mind as it does a Las Vegas or an Atlantic City.
Still, those numbers are pretty strong – even for questions with some built-in bias. It sure seems like we should be able to give some credence to any response shared by 96 percent of those questioned.
No Casino Gettysburg did not claim to be conducting a scientific poll. They said they just wanted to gauge public opinion, but would welcome some other group doing a more scientific survey.
As luck would have it, some other group says it already has – Chance Enterprises. Brabender says his Pittsburgh political consulting firm, Brabender Cox, conducted the scientific survey for Chance. That was the survey that Gettysburg businessman and Chance Enterprise investor David LeVan cited the day he announced his group’s casino plan.
He said his scientific survey – conducted by telephone and consisting of 300 Adams County residents, not tourists – found that a majority of them supported the casino concept and thought it would have a positive impact on the county. And a majority also told the pollsters they would be likely to visit such a casino at least once a year, said LeVan.
Just a couple of problems with that.
First of all, Brabender has since refused to release the details of the survey. We have no idea exactly what questions were asked or how they were worded. We have no idea if there might also have been questions asked that did not draw a response favorable to Chance’s cause. We don’t even know what the exact figures were for the questions that were cited.
All we have, really, is somebody citing a couple of “majority” responses in a poll of 300 people. So, for all we know, it could have been 151 Adams countians saying a casino is a good idea, and 149 saying it’s a lousy idea. It could have been 151 saying they would visit the casino, and 149 saying no way.
Or maybe there really is strong support for the casino among residents. Maybe 250 said they like the idea and 50 said no.
We just don’t know.
What we do know is that Chance’s spokesman is criticizing a group that opened up its questions and polling method to public scrutiny. Something the investors group seems unwilling to do.
We think the No Casino survey deserves more than a shrug. We can understand that it would merit only that from Chance Enterprises.
But a lot of other entities – from Straban Township officials to the Chamber of Commerce to the state gambling board – ought to be listening and maybe even authorizing polls of their own.
The issue is too important to be left to an amateur survey, no matter how well intended, and too important to be left to Chance.
Throw out those pro-gambling experts and their self-serving studies.
Forget about the fanciful promises of economic nirvana.
If you need one shining example of how legalized gambling already is eroding our principles and clouding our judgment, consider this: a slot machine parlor is being proposed for Gettysburg.
Gettysburg is to America what Jerusalem is to the world's leading religions. If there is a single place in American history that defines the people of this land, it is Gettysburg. Because of this, Pennsylvanians are the special trustees of this sacred ground and its environs.
Gettysburg is an educational center and a living historical site that has retained an incongruous quaintness in spite of the momentous struggle that took place in those gentle hills. It is not a fun place -- in the manner of an amusement park or mega-mall -- nor is it meant to be.
And if you study a little before going there, as most folks do, you may experience a palpable sadness as you walk the streets and visit the memorabilia shops.
This is as it should be.
Many Americans are generally familiar with the significance of Gettysburg. For three hot days at the beginning of July 1863, Union and Confederate troops joined in a titanic battle that foreshadowed the outcome of the Civil War. Each side earnestly believed it was morally right -- that it had the blessing of a righteous god.
When it was over, total casualties were around 50,000. The fields, streets and homes of Gettysburg were soaked with blood and filled with the dead and wounded. And the beginning of the next chapter in American history was just off in the distance.
Here is what President Lincoln said about this place on Nov. 19, 1863, in the Gettysburg Address:
"We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
Ponder those words for a moment; then decide if this is the right place for a casino.
Consider if this is the right place for the trivial and festive wagering of dollars where so many wagered their lives for our future. Should anything be countenanced near this place that will distract or cause us to forget, even for a moment?
We have lost our way before in the name of financial profit. In the early 1970s, a group of private investors built a 307-foot steel observation tower that soared above the battlefield, creating a "Star Wars meets the sacred war dead" effect. After nearly 20 years of that disgrace, the tower was blown-up.
A demolition expert from Maryland offered to remove it free of charge in 2000, as long as the tower came down on that anniversary of the especially bloody Pickett's charge. The razing was one step toward recreating the same views of the battlefield that the troops witnessed in 1863.
Considering the casino in light of that ill-fated observation tower brings the entire controversy into focus and is reminiscent of the biblical tower of Babylon. Then, Nimrod directed his people to build a tower into the clouds. Whether it was a stairway to heaven or an escape route from some future god-inspired flood, the tower eventually crumbled and the plan failed.
But even worse for the misguided souls who were involved, a vengeful god garbled their language and they lost their ability to speak anything but nonsense.
A similar fate has been visited upon the Gettysburg casino proponents. Now, they are talking nonsense.
Joseph Sabino Mistick is a lawyer, law professor and political analyst. He lives in Point Breeze. E-mail him at: SabinoMistick@aol.com.
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Monday, July 25, 2005 Pa. gaming expansion roils historic site By Peter Durantine, Special to Stateline.org
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – About four miles from one of America’s most sacred sites – the Civil War battlefield here – developers energized by a new Pennsylvania law that authorizes the largest expansion of gambling in state history want to build a slot machine casino.
Uproar over locating a 3,000-machine casino down the road from the site of the single bloodiest Civil War battle has sparked condemnations from various corners of the globe and even reached the Oval Office in the form of a Virginia congressman’s letter to President Bush, urging him to take action.
A group of investors led by Gettysburg businessman David LeVan was inspired to propose the slots parlor by a newly enacted law, upheld by the state Supreme Court in June, that vastly expands gambling in the state to raise revenue for property-tax relief.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will award licenses for 14 slot-machine casinos, with the first expected to open in late 2006. Under the law, the state’s four horse racetracks and three proposed tracks each get a casino, resorts can compete for two casino licenses, and developers can compete for the five remaining licenses.
Three of the five stand-alone licenses already have been designated – two for Philadelphia and one for Pittsburgh – leaving two up for grabs. Whether LeVan and his group can secure one remains uncertain.
Opponents of the Gettysburg casino don’t doubt LeVan and his group, Chance Enterprises, can afford the state’s $50 million license fee. Besides the casino, they want to build a luxury hotel and spa, restaurant and shopping mall. But can they afford countering public outcry?
Several of the state’s leading congressional members, including U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), have denounced the proposal. Historic preservation groups such as the 70,000-member Civil War Preservation Trust and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson also have excoriated it.
At the politically sensitive Gaming Control Board, which has not yet started to take applications, this could weigh against the developers. Chairman Theodore Decker recently told a legislative oversight committee the seven-member board would consider the battlefield’s integrity when taking up the casino application.
The fusillade of media coverage – most of it expressing criticism – apparently has not sent the developers in retreat, but they’re no longer talking to reporters. A week of repeated calls to LeVan and the Pittsburgh public relations firm representing him were not returned.
LeVan talked to the Scotsman.com, which ran a story in May headlined, “Fury at casino’s Gettysburg address.” He told the Scottish-based Web site he didn’t understand the opposition because the casino is far from earshot and eyesight of the battlefield. “The only thing it’s going to have in common is the name Gettysburg,” LeVan said.
And that’s the issue in a rifle shot: the address.
Unlike other Civil War battlefields such as Vicksburg, Miss., where riverboat casinos are docked along the Mississippi River about a half mile from a historic site, Gettysburg National Military Park hasn’t faced a lot of development pressures.
“We’re fortunate in that it hasn’t happened often here. We have a good track record of acquiring land to preserve the battlefield,” said Katie Lawhon, a spokeswoman for the park, which is maintained by the National Park Service.
During the first three days in July 1863, the Gettysburg battle ranged across more than 22,000 acres. Today 5,989 acres of the battlefield and its historic buffer are protected. The National Park Service has plans – though no funding yet – to acquire another 1,200 acres.
In part, what’s riled preservationists is that the casino would be about one mile from a satellite historic site, the East Cavalry Battlefield. At this site – about three miles from the main battlefield and next to a 200-acre business park that began going up five years ago – Brig. Gen. David Gregg’s Union cavalry caught and stopped Major Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry on July 3, 1863, the last day of the battle.
For the local opposition group in the borough – No Casino Gettysburg – it’s more than historic preservation of the battlefield and the borough. The borough is home to a large population of young people attending Gettysburg College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary.
No Casino Gettysburg spokeswoman Loni Buck said the proposed casino would bring crime, drugs and increased traffic, all of which would affect this “vulnerable age group.”
Moreover, most of the school districts in the vicinity including Gettysburg chose not to participate in Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s property-tax reduction plan, meaning local taxpayers won’t get a take of state gambling revenues. In an unusual arrangement, the law gives school districts the option of accepting a share of gambling proceeds in exchange for lowering property taxes, on which public schools largely rely for funding.
The property for the proposed casino is planned for commercial use, so opponents doubt they can win any zoning fights to stop it. They’re mostly banking on public outcry to get casino developers to back away from the ground President Abraham Lincoln famously dedicated in his address saluting the 3,512 Union soldiers who died there. The South lost 3,320 soldiers in the battle.
Send your comments on this story to letters@stateline.org. Selected reader feedback will be posted in the Letters to the editor section.
Peter Durantine is a freelance journalist based in Harrisburg, Pa.
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A Casino at Gettysburg? No!
Editorial in the Columbus Dispatch (5-24-05):
Gettysburg has to be the worst place in Pennsylvania for a casino.
Historians, Civil War buffs and preservationists would like to crush this asinine proposal before it gets off the ground.
If approved by a state commission, the casino and spa would be built about 1 1/2 miles east of the Gettysburg National Military Park, near enough to be considered a desecration of the memory of the thousands of soldiers who are buried there.
James M. McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author on the Civil War, opposes this "tawdry, tasteless enterprise next to their fields of honor."
A 10-member investment group, aptly named Chance Enterprises, is led by David LeVan, a Gettysburg businessman who also owns Battlefield Harley-Davidson. He asserts that the casino would not be visible from the park, unlike the Gettysburg Tower, which was so hated by the National Park Service.
The 307-foot observation tower was a commercial venture erected in 1974 and intended to give tourists a bird's-eye view of the battlefield. Preservationists deplored it as a blot on the battlefield scenery. The tower was demolished in July 2000 during observances of the 137th anniversary of the horrific three-day battle.
Gettysburg, with its old inns, quaint streets and majestic monuments on rolling hills, would be spoiled by the addition of a gaming palace with up to 3,000 slot machines.
Other areas of the United States, such as Vicksburg, Miss., have tried to blend some tourists' interest in U.S. history with others' love of gambling. A study by the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau found that few gamblers visited the battlefield.
Clearly, the investors want to cash in on Gettysburg's success as a popular historical site. But Gettysburg's success is further reason that this idea should die. State leaders promoted casinos to stimulate the economy in depressed areas of Pennsylvania. The Gettysburg area is not in that category. *********************************************************
York Daily Record Editorial (ydr.com)
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
No slots at Gettysburg: How can the borough council remain neutral on this plan?
Pick a side: Neutral? How could they be neutral?
A proposal is on the table that could drastically change the character of Gettysburg, bringing in gobs of gamblers, and the borough council wants to remain neutral?
Council President Ted Streeter said recently that the borough intends to make like Switzerland and not take sides on whether a proposed slots parlor would be good or bad for the town. He said the council had no business weighing in on the project — individual citizens can do so if they wish.
But isn't the council the people's representative? Shouldn't elected officials play a lead role in this decision, which will largely be made by the state Gaming Commission? Seems like a word from the council would carry at least a little weight in that board's decision — more weight, probably, than the average man on the street.
Actually, Mr. Streeter doesn't really seem neutral at all — dismissing the potential congestion and crime increases from a casino as things that would happen in the growing community anyway. He also said those pitching the gambling den "will to the best of their ability assist and support the borough as we deal with the consequences."
Does that sound neutral?
It sounds positive and encouraging.
Well, we're not: Slot machines are simply a bad bet for Gettysburg. A casino just doesn't belong a few miles from a solemn memorial to the bloodiest battle ever on American soil. The borough council ought to be leading the charge against this proposal.
Casino Gambling Where? No casino at site of Gettysburg address Editorial in The New London Day 5/11/05
"Some investors in Pennsylvania want to take advantage of a law legalizing slot machines to put them in Gettysburg.
Yes, that Gettysburg. The turning point of the Civil War. The place where Abraham Lincoln gave a near-perfect address that remains the model of brevity and poignancy of nearly any speech ever given in the English language. The place where thousands died and suffered for a cause greater than themselves." ...
(The New London Day 5/11/05)
Gettysburg Casino The Public Square® - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Have you ever been to Gettysburg? Just about everybody knows about this little town in Pennsylvania. Lots of people have been there. Children hear about it in school every year. Names like Lee, Longstreet, Armisted, Pickett, Ewell, Hood, Reynolds, Chamberlain, and Hancock, are familiar to those who have studied those three historic days back in July of 1863. If you’ve read about the Civil War at all, or surfed across the History Channel, you know Gettysburg is a major artery in American history. Now the 6000 acres of America’s most hallowed ground is about to change. Not far from where thousands of soldiers are buried, a few minutes from the site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a developer is trying to build a massive casino complex. So what’s next? Maybe we should cut off a few acres at Arlington National Cemetery and build a casino there. The Lee mansion doesn’t bring in any real money to the Department of the Army. That big house on the hillside would look stunning with slot machines on the front porch.And since we are in the neighborhood—why not take a few acres at Valley Forge? Forget all that bleeding and dying in the key winter of the Revolutionary War. There’s money to be made boys—let’s build those slots.
Providence (R.I.) Journal Editorial, 5/25/05
Froma Harrop: Tragedies of history up for sale (condensed)
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 25, 2005
NEW YORKERS CONTINUE to agonize over what historic message to leave at Ground Zero. It's mostly a tussle between saying that life goes on and recalling the life that stopped on Sept. 11, 2001. Everyone agrees that good taste must rule. This is hallowed ground.
The battle site at Gettysburg, Pa., is also hallowed ground. But ... officials are now examining proposals for a casino within cannon earshot of the dying fields. The Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa is getting serious consideration.
The casino "will provide added amenities for the millions of tourists who already visit our historical sites," explains the spokesman for Chance Enterprises, the casino's investor.
It makes you wonder whether anything can stay sacred for long. More than 12,000 soldiers -- Confederate and Union -- died at Gettysburg. When Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, on Nov. 19, 1863, five months after the battle, human body parts were still emerging from the mud.
Americans saw the ground as holy and full of meaning. Lincoln said that "the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here" had already consecrated the ground. It was the "unfinished work" of the "living" to sew a torn nation together and seek freedom for all its people.
In the months that followed, Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist and editor, made constant reference to the sacred ground at Gettysburg. To him, it marked the burial spot for a slave-owning America. Of the old Union, Douglass said, "It is dead, and you cannot put life in it."
Veterans from both the Union and Confederate sides would make anguished pilgrimages to the site -- though not together in the early years. But as time passed, the emotional force of the earth underneath started to fade.
That's not to say the battlefield has lost all power to move. Visit Gettysburg today, and immerse your thoughts in the horror of July 1863: It's hard not to be shaken.
But still, the battle was 142 years ago. The feelings evoked today are not strong enough to easily quash efforts to build a casino nearby.
The gaming palace would be five miles outside of the Gettysburg National Military Park. The 42-acre site was a staging ground for Confederate soldiers. Casino supporters note that there's already a strip mall across the road, so what the heck. In New York, by contrast, the parties overseeing Ground Zero have only spiritually uplifting concepts to choose from. One idea is the International Freedom Center, which would honor such emancipators as Lincoln, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. But consider the possibility of something truly tasteless. Reflect on a proposal for a Ground Zero Casino and Resort, steps from where the Twin Towers once stood. Imagine its backers saying that the casino could give potential visitors to Ground Zero (to quote the Gettysburg-casino spokesman) "one more reason to come."
Impossible? Ask again in 2147, which would mark the same amount of time that has elapsed since the Battle of Gettysburg. By then, Sept. 11 will have become just another "famous date in American history." And saying it in speeches will no longer summon shudders from the audience.
The passage of time erases the greatest of pain. All that's left to protect our hallowed grounds is a sense of history. When historical ignorance takes over, no place is safe once the blood has dried.
Froma Harrop is a Journal editorial writer and syndicated columnist. She may be reached by e-mail at: fharrop@projo.com
Harrisburg Patriot-News Slots win, addicts lose Monday, June 27, 2005
The state Supreme Court cut Gov. Ed Rendell and the Legislature a big-time break in affirming that lawmakers had indeed followed the state Constitution in legalizing slot machines in Pennsylvania.
The historic legislation took the form of an attachment to a one-page bill requiring background checks of racetrack employees, notwithstanding the clear statement in Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution that "no bill shall be so altered or amended, on its passage through either House, to change its original purpose."
Words apparently have no meaning with this court. It's all in the interpretation.
Thus, the way is cleared for installation of 61,000 slot machines within easy reach of every Pennsylvanian, fulfilling contemporary notions of progress and raising revenues for education of children. Vice wins, constitutional government loses.
Still, the ruling wasn't a complete disaster. The court threw out the gambling law's appalling override of local zoning ordinances, which the Rendell administration, defying all understanding, says it will push to have restored. And the jurists decided that the casinos could not provide gamblers with free or reduced-cost drinks, which will keep the focus on putting ever more coins down the maw of this vast state-sanctioned money-sucking enterprise.
All and all, it was a good day for gambling proponents, and a bad day for Pennsylvania's traditional social conservatism. Get those gambling addiction counselors ready. And lock down your assets. A very different Pennsylvania is about to be conceived.
What Happened in Other States
South Carolina threw out Video Gambling after a 10 day old girl suffocated in a hot car while her 31 year old mother played the machines she's been addicted to since age 19.
AS THE NATION prepares to celebrate Independence Day, we in South Carolina should take a moment to consider our own latter-day declaration of independence.
It was five years ago today that our state began a new era of independence from the video poker scourge that had enslaved our political system, made a mockery of our judicial system and ruined countless lives.
The old poker barons and their lackeys would have us believe that nothing was accomplished by eradicating video gambling; some even go so far as to insist that our state has suffered as a result.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Yes, we still have gambling in South Carolina, perhaps even more than five years ago, thanks to the ill-advised creation of a state lottery. And the presence of a state-run gambling enterprise certainly is nothing to celebrate.
But for most people, eliminating video poker wasn’t about gambling. It was about wresting control of our government back from a corrupt industry that had slithered into back rooms of seedy bars and corner stores, when state law clearly prohibited gambling, and then convinced an ethically suspect senator to sneak a deceptively worded amendment into a 1,000-page budget bill to legalize the payouts it had been commonly, and illegally, making for years. It was about casting out an industry that grew and prospered by routinely and deliberately and systematically violating state laws — to the extent that a federal judge noted that it was impossible to compete without breaking the law. It was about finally standing up to an industry that, when it realized it might not be able to manipulate our courts forever, launched an intensive campaign to bully our elected officials into submission — and to take out those who wouldn’t play by its rules.
Claims that the demise of video poker somehow led to the state’s financial woes are even more ridiculous than the suggestion that nothing was gained by its departure. One need only look at the problems nearly every state in the nation has encountered over the past five years — several much worse than ours — to see that the job losses and reductions in tax collections were part of a national economic downturn from which we are only now beginning to emerge.
Five years later, video poker still exists in South Carolina. SLED seizes 100 illegal machines a month, and operators are constantly making tiny adjustments to machines to try to find some way around the prohibition. But the enforcement is itself a sign of success: This is no longer a political battle (or at least not one that any elected official dares wage in the open); it is a law enforcement battle — no different from law enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking or prostitution or any other criminal enterprise. And with the politicians no longer bending the laws to their will, the poker operators have found that playing their delaying games in the courts no longer allows an industry to thrive; it merely delays the inevitable for each individual criminal.
Today, South Carolinians can walk into a convenience store or a bar or restaurant without feeling like they have stumbled into a seedy gambling den. And South Carolina’s political system is free from the corrupting influence of an unregulated, unrestrained enterprise that preyed on the poor and had its way with our government. That is, indeed, reason to celebrate.
