![[image]](heritage.gif)
![[photo: Cowboy Statue on Boot Hill, Dodge City, by Dr.
Oscar Simpson, DDS, 1929. C. 1998, G.L.]](http://www.kansashistory.us/fordco/graphics/cowboy2.jpg)
Dodge City Boot Hill Casino Gambling Issues:
Impact of Kansas casino gambling on communities
Why Not Dodge? Blog; How Boot Hill Casino will affect SW Kansas
A closer look at Boot Hill Gaming's name: "Boot Hill Museum sold the name Boot Hill Gaming to the organization's president, Jeff Thorpe, last month for use in developing a proposed statewide poker tournament tour.
"Thorpe and his wife bought the rights to the name Boot Hill Gaming Inc. for $1,000, plus a pledge for an additional $1,000 contribution to the museum, he told the Globe on Thursday. In addition, they promised to donate 5 percent of the annual net profits from the poker tour — if it comes together and proves successful — to the museum...." from Dodge City Daily Globe, March 20, 2009
Dodge City, Kansas Votes on Gambling & KS State-owned Casino
"Bad Odds," Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2007
A growing body of research and experience, however, suggests the odds are not stacked in the state's favor. Some economists go so far as to call casinos a sort of global zero-sum game, in which the outcome for a host city depends on the casino's ability to attract out-of-state tourists and separate them from their money -- a feat that becomes increasingly hard to achieve as more states install casinos of their own. "There are two simple questions: Where does the money come from, and where does the money go?" says William Thomson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. "If the customers live in the local area, there's no way you can have economic development."
Board of Directors - Boot Hill Museum, Inc., Dodge City, KS, Testamony before the Federal and State Affairs Committee, Topeka, Kansas, March 12, 2007; in support of
legislation to allow for expanded gaming in the State of Kansas [.pdf file]
Boot Hill Gaming Board
Boot Hill Gaming
Board of Directors
9/30/2006
“For Profit Corporation,” According to the filing made in The Kansas Secretary Of State Office.
Jeff Thorpe, President (Fidelity Bank)
Ed. Brancart, Secretary (formerly, Ford County Attorney; Wyandotte Co. Asst. Dist. Attorney.) Resigned after Kansas law passed
Kent Smoll, Treasurer (Dodge City Commissioner and Mayor) Resigned after Kansas law passed
Kim Goodnight, (Chair, Ford County Commissioner) Resigned after Kansas law passed
Dan Harris, (Fidelity Bank)
Scott Chipman, (Fidelity Bank)
Greg Starks, (Coldwell Banker) Former Chairman, CFAB Resigned BH Gaming Board in late July 2007
Jim Coffin, (JAG Construction Co.)
Joe Bogner, (Western Beverage) Served on 1st. FAB Board; sold his farm land to Boot Hill Casino Inc.
Boot Hill Museum,Inc. Members. [updated 09 March 2009 -- includes 2008 members noted]
Jeff Thorpe, (Fidelity Bank)
Dan Harris, (Fidelity Bank)
Kim Goodnight, (Ford County Commissioner) [Resigned 2008, back on 2009]
Glen Kerbs, (Ford County Counselor) [Resigned 2008]
Dean Bush, (Ford County Sheriff) [Resigned 2008, back on 2009]
George Hendrichs, (Founder Boot Hill Museum Inc.) [deceased]
Jim Sherer, (Ex. Manager, Boot Hill) (Dodge City Commissioner) [deceased: Resigned 2008, back on 2009]
Gayle Ausmus, United Way (Member)
Kerri Baker, (Member)
Ryan Carpenter, (Member) [Resigned 2008]
Charles (Walter) Couch, Rancher (Member)
Patric Hamit, SW Kansas Community Foundation (Member) [Resigned 2008, back on 2009]
Beth Rhoten, Long's Department Store (Member)
Jan Stevens, (ex-officio)
Ken Winters, (Member) [Resigned 2008]
Community Facilities Advisory Board
Jim Lembright (Member, former City Commissioner, replaced Starks)
Rick Sowers (City Commissioner)
Terry Williams (County Commissioner)
Ed. Elam, (County Administrator)
Lance Nichols (Chairman)
Pat Shrader (Member)
Ann Torrey (Member)
Justin Baning, Husband of Carolyn Baning, Partner in Smoll-Baning, Member Appointee (DC/FC Econ.Dev.)
[Greg Starks, (former Chairman) on "temporary leave", August 2007: back on 2008; resigned Oct 2008]
The economic impact is also being debated. A report last year, produced for the state by a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor and gambling industry expert William Thompson, suggested a casino would hurt the local economy more than it would help.
Thompson believes a Dodge City casino could generate $80 million a year in revenues. Instead of attracting tourists, however, it would likely draw locals and, as a result, siphon tens of millions of dollars from the local economy. Other obstacles include the city's relatively small airport and its distance — 100 miles — to the nearest interstate. [From USA Today, July 2007]
Dr. Clements specializes in the history of the American West. Many of the West's small towns have struggled to prosper with the decline of resource-extractive industries and the end of the cold war. Some have switched to tourism as their primary industry, but commercializing history often damages its integrity. What tourism can injure, gambling can obliterate. In Gambling with Your Heritage: Tourism, Casinos, and the Uses of Western History, Dr. Eric Clements will examine the perils of western history as presented for commercial purposes -- and that it does not protect Western History.
Gamblers Anonymous offers 20 questions to anyone who may have a gambling problem. These questions are provided to help the individual decide if he or she is a compulsive gambler and wants to stop gambling.
" I am willing to concede that there may well be some economic benefit to the city and to the region: Ford County will receive 3 percent of the revenue produced by the casino, about $1.7 million, I am told. In thinking about that, however, we also need to consider the social cost of the casino. It is estimated that 1,280 to 1,920 persons will become pathological gamblers as a result of a casino. The social cost of one pathological gambler is $13,586 per year. The annual social cost would be between $17 million and $26 million, therefore, roughly 10 to 15 times as much as the county will receive."
Butler National Corporation Selected By Boot Hill Gaming, Boot Hill Gaming, Inc. is a Dodge City community organization, a profit sub-corporation of the non-profit Boot Hill Museum, Inc., Dodge City, KS
Boot Hill Gaming President Jeff Thorpe said the casino proposal is unlike any other the state has ever considered. Casino profits, he said, would be earmarked in part for local and regional tourism efforts. "Nobody's planning on getting rich from this," said Thorpe, a vice president at Fidelity State Bank ...
The testimony
given by Mr. Thorpe includes estimates by a State of Kansas research study of casino revenues in the
Dodge City destination market that range from $50 million to $60 million per year. [Butler
National Service Corporation, Olathe, Kansas .pdf file]
Casino Facts, a volunteer organization whose purpose is to bring attention to the well-documented negative effects that casinos can have on communities (How will a casino effect the Middleboro police department?
The annual number of calls to Ledyard, Connecticut police department jumped from 4000 to 16,700 within five years after the opening of the nearby Foxwoods Casino.
Mayor Wesley J. Johnson, Sr., "Fiscal Impacts of Foxwoods Casino on the Town of Ledyard, Connecticut,"
April 1997), casinofacts.org
"Another reason why geography matters so much in gaming analysis is that slot machines and table games—in and of themselves—do not present casino operators with substantial opportunities for differentiation. As entertainment products, they are essentially commodities. Thus, consumption of gambling tends to be motivated in large measure by the geographic convenience of options available to the consumer. True, people visit Las Vegas from all over the US. But in such non-destination markets as Iowa, Michigan, South Dakota, and Arizona, gambling consumption tends to follow patterns like the consumption of amusement, mall, and other quasi-commodity services—consumers go to the nearest one. As a result, most models of the casino industry start from geographic competition, and only then add other dimensions such as hotels, entertainment halls, and shopping areas."
"Personal bankruptcy rates in all counties with casinos rose by about 10 percent and by 15 percent in more populous counties with casinos. Total reported crimes also increased slightly in casino counties, but only because of population increases associated with casinos. The crime rate (the number of crimes per 1,000 residents) actually declined. Given that population increased faster in areas with casinos, this means that per-capita public-sector spending and revenues in casino counties rose more slowly than in similar non-casino counties."
Site maintained by George Laughead, Chair, Mountain Plains Museums Association Museums Myspace session, and panel member, AAM Small Museums & Technology. Thanks to Dr. Lynn H. Nelson, who explains "HNSource, the first history site on the WWW."
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