Behrend Economic Conference Opens Discussion of the Economic Impact of Gambling on Erie
As the fifth annual conference of the Economic Research Institute of Erie concluded earlier today, John Sorrenti, a former county commissioner in Hancock County, West Virginia, offered words of advice on Erie County’s future in gaming: use gaming income for one-time expenditures only; and set standards for the use of new tax monies before they arrive.
“As soon as the tax dollars from the casinos begin to roll in, people and organizations will be lining up with requests,” said Sorrenti. “If the county has planned, well ahead of time, how the money will be spent, you’ll avoid a lot of problems.” He was referring to the proposed racetrack and casino currently under consideration for Erie County. Sorrenti served as a county commissioner for 18 years. Currently, he is the training manager for MTR Gaming.
Sorrenti’s talk provided words of experience for more than seventy community and economic development leaders who attended the conference. His talk followed presentations by Dr. William N. Thompson, professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Randall Childs, an economist at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University.
Thompson is the author of several books on gambling, and has conducted years of research on gambling and its impact. In April 2003 he presented his thoughts on gambling to the Finance Committee of the Pennsylvania Legislature. His presentation suggested that there would be an economic impact loss of nearly $105 million when the proposed racetrack and casino are established in Erie County.
Childs, who authored a report in 1999 on the economic impact of Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort, located in the county represented Sorrenti’s , offered a different point of view. After presenting the moderate success experienced by Mountaineer in West Virginia, he presented a set of questions that Erie’s leaders should be asking as casinos move into the community. What will the casinos include? Will they have restaurants, lodging? What region will we draw from? Where will visitors come from? Will the money generated by news money for the economy? What is the multiplier? And what social effects will casinos have on the region? Overall, his opinion was that Erie would see modest economic development from a racetrack and casino.
The conference also featured a presentation on the Erie economy by James A. Kurre, director of the Economic Research Institute, and a presentation on the national economy by Barry Weller, past director of the institute. Kurre’s presentation included work resulting from undergraduate research on the topic of income inequality in Erie. In a study of 329 metropolitian areas, Erie ranked 102 in income equality. New York City, at 329, was least equal, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, ranked number one and had the most income equality.
The conference was well-covered by the Erie media, with representatives from Erie’s ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates there, as well as reporters from the Erie Times-News and WPSE 1450 radio.
“I’m glad we covered gambling in this year’s conference,” said Kurre. “It’s a timely topic that deserves lots of discussion in the community. I hope we got some of that discussion under way.”
The purpose of ERIE, founded in 1983 as an outreach center of the Sam and Irene Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend, is to collect, analyze, interpret, and disseminate data and information on the Erie regional economy. The institute also provides both undergraduate and graduate students with experience with applied economic research and analysis. The institutes economic data is online at www.ERIEdata.org.