RISING SUN — Sitting in the Ohio County Senior Center on Mulberry Street, you can't even see Grand Victoria Casino.

        But everybody in this sleepy Ohio River town knows that the building, and a neighboring public pool, were paid for by nearly $1 million in tax receipts from the floating casino.

Stella Zaharakos (left) and Lillian Martin make salads at the Argosy Casino. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Five years after Grand Victoria and the Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg appeared, more than half a billion dollars in casino money touches nearly every person in the community, for better or for worse.

        There are more drunken-driving arrests and higher jail costs, but there also are more computers at the public library.

        Turfway Park in Florence is suffering from the impact, but at the senior center, there are grandparents who eat meals five days a week and grandchildren who swim in the pool in the summertime.

        Even miles inland from the glitzy blackjack tables, fancy restaurants and towering hotels that drew more than 11 million visits in 2000, the casinos have altered the way of life.

        “There are people who will come to this building who won't go to the riverboats because they don't believe in gambling,” said Mick Liggett, park director at the senior center. “But we would have none of this — and I mean none of this, zero — without the casinos.”

        When Argosy opened to the public five years ago today — Dec. 13, 1996 — many cheered the windfall that was about to fill the coffers of local governments.

        That was one of the conditions for allowing the giant casino companies like Argosy and Hyatt to start operations here. Argosy, for example, posted operating earnings of about $96 million in Lawrenceburg for the first nine months of this year alone.

        The money flow has slowed, but not stopped, with the slowing economy. Combined, the two casinos and Belterra Casino, which opened in October 2000 in Switzerland County, posted gross gaming revenue of $497 million.

        Southeastern Indiana's local governments have benefitted from both a $3 per person state admissions tax and a 20 percent wagering tax levied on the casinos' adjusted gross receipts (that is, winnings before the casino pays salaries, taxes and other expenses).

        The admissions tax is divided this way: Both the host city and host county get $1 each, with 10 cents going to local tourism agencies and the rest going to state mental health, racing and fair agencies. Twenty-five percent of the wagering tax goes to a casino's host city (or host county, if it's not in an incorporated area). The rest goes to a state fund that's been used to do things such as convert the state's public television stations to digital broadcasting.

        Anticipating the windfall, local governments promised back in 1995 to use the tax money for roads, parks, libraries and sewers, to provide for the region's long-term future.

        That has come true. Combined, Argosy and Grand Victoria have paid more than $540 million in taxes since they opened.

        Argosy also paid the city of Lawrenceburg $27 million this year through a privately negotiated development agreement. Half of that goes to the Lawrenceburg Conservancy District.

        The money has been spread liberally to schools, park districts and neighboring towns. That has hushed most opposition to the casinos.

        “I don't think the problems have hit yet,” said Dearborn County Council member Charlie Fehrman. “On the one hand, there's been an economic boon to Dearborn County coffers. On the other hand, there's a whole new set of problems we never had to deal with before.”

Lots of jobs

        Stella Zaharakos may be the only person at the Argosy Casino not after a big payday.

        With the fast-moving hands of a blackjack dealer, Ms. Zaharakos rips apart lettuce, dropping the moist green leaves in a stainless steel mixing bowl. Four days a week the 60-year-old Lawrenceburg resident prepares salads served in Argosy's restaurants even though she also owns and operates her own restaurant and catering business in town.

        “I don't work here for the money,” Mrs. Zaharakos said during a brief break from her work. “Like a lot of people, especially senior citizens, I do it for the benefits.”

        As a small-business owner, she was paying more than $500 a month for health insurance. As a full-time employee at Argosy, she pays less than $40.

        “I've had five bypass surgeries, and I now have health care I can afford,” Mrs. Zaharakos explained. “It's a good deal working here.”

        According to an Indiana University economist's survey, three in every 10 workers at Argosy and Grand Victoria were unemployed before taking the job.

        Argosy and Grand Victoria have provided plenty of those kind of jobs, nearly 4,000 overall. But they also have brought a bill for the “social costs” that opponents predicted when area residents narrowly approved casino gambling.

        In Ohio County those problems include an increase in drunken driving, said Sheriff Eldon Fancher.

        “We've seen an increase in people drinking and driving, and have had some more arrests for public intoxication, but that's something we really expected would happen when the (Grand Victoria) boat opened,” Mr. Fancher said.

        “We have more people, several thousand a day, coming in to the county every day to go to the boat and most of them are drinking,” he said. “It's natural to see an increase.”

        Since Grand Victoria opened in 1996, the number of people charged with drunken driving in Ohio County has increased nearly every year: 33 in 1996; 96 in 1997; 149 in 1998; and 170 in 1999.

        The number of arrests did fall to 98 in 2000, but through November of this year they are back up to 103, according to the sheriff's office.

        And the Dearborn County Jail — which also handles inmates from Ohio County — has seen the number of inmates being held for minor offenses increase since the casinos opened.

        Dearborn County Sheriff David Wismann said the jail's average number of daily inmates has increased from 101 inmates in 1996 to 133 last year.

        Mr. Wismann attributes the increase to casino patrons committing crimes, but also to the growth of Dearborn County. U.S. Census figures released last month show the county's population increased 18.7 percent to 46,109 during the 1990s.

Money to burn

        Even after five years, public officials in Dearborn and Ohio counties are simply overwhelmed by the the money pouring in from casinos.

        Counting revenue to the state, county, and city, the Lawrenceburg Conservancy District and neighboring communities, Argosy has poured $469 million into the community since 1996, the casino estimated.

        Combined, Argosy and Grand Victoria have paid nearly $200 million in local direct taxes, and another $344 million in state taxes, according to an Indiana University study.

        Much of the money is distributed through the state. The Build Indiana Fund finances projects including Internet access in classrooms, pensions for police officers and firefighters, the state's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, and a pool to help public-television stations with the pricey conversion to digital equipment.

        In Lawrenceburg, gaming money has helped put security cameras in local schools and build a $1.8 million tunnel underneath U.S. 50, protecting students at Lawrenceburg High School from crossing against heavy traffic.

        “Every penny of that is well spent if we don't get a kid hit on 50,” Mayor Paul Tremain said.

        That's in addition to a handful of huge infrastructure projects in the last four years, including a $5 million new home for Ivy Tech State College and an $11 million wastewater treatment plant expansion.

Not all good

        The negative effects of riverboat gaming are felt beyond southeastern Indiana. While the boats have flourished, their popularity has cut revenue at gaming outlets in Kentucky and Ohio.

        The amount of money bet on horse racing at Turfway Park in Florence has dropped 43 percent since the casinos opened, said track president Bob Elliston.

        Kentucky's thoroughbred industry is working on legislation that would expand gambling to allow casino-style games at racetracks. Mr. Elliston said details are being worked out but he does expect a bill to be ready when the Kentucky General Assembly begins meeting in January.

        There is some evidence beginning to emerge that suggests, and in some cases confirms, that problems do come with the dollars and jobs generated by casino gambling.

        A 1998 telephone survey of 3,000 Indiana residents, performed by Louisiana State University and funded by the state of Indiana, found that 5.3 percent of those called indicated a problem with gambling and spending 40 or more hours a month wagering.

        A representative of the Greater Cincinnati chapter of Gamblers Anonymous said attendance at the group's meetings has increased since the riverboats opened.

        “Our membership has increased almost 50 percent,” said Fred, a recovering compulsive gambler from Northern Kentucky who would give only his first name. (It's the policy of Gamblers Anonymous to have members give only their first names.)

        Prior to the opening of the riverboats, Gamblers Anonymous had four meetings a week throughout the region. Now, the organization holds as many as eight because of the increased membership, Fred said, with an average of 15 to 20 people at each meeting.

        Last year the Indiana Division of Mental Health allocated $1.4 million to pay for a two-year statewide prevention and education program aimed at curtailing and treating problem gambling. The funding comes from a portion of the admission tax paid by the casinos.

        The state also provides a toll-free phone number for problem gamblers.

        And the casino operators say they promote responsible gambling with information about compulsive betting in their advertisements, on their Internet Web sites and on other printed and promotional materials, including admission tickets to the boats.

        “One problem gambler is too many,” said Arnold Block, the general manager of Argosy's riverboat. “We train our employees to be aware of compulsive gamblers, and we will ban people if they are gambling too much.”

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