Feeling that a Casino located in Gettysburg would do more harm to area buinesses than good, Craftix Technology Solutions, LLC has chosen to join the growing number of people and businesses opposed to such.

At the end of 2009, the Pennsylvania State legislature, acting under pressure from the Governor of Pennsylvania, began working on table games legislation to expand the operations of its existing slots casinos to allow for table games. The measure was ultimately passed in January and opened up the one remaining unassigned casino license to proposals for another casino to be built in Pennsylvania. This has opened the door for a developer with plans to build a new casino 1/2 mile from the National Battlefield at Gettysburg right off the Emmitsburg Rd at the present Eisenhower Inn. The proposed casino, to be called the Mason-Dixon Resort, has the same people behind it that were also involved in a previous attempt in 2006 under the name of Crossroads, which failed.

The problem as I see it is that Gettysburg is an incompatible venue for a casino, both based on the unique nature of our community and because Gettysburg businesses are very likely to be harmed by such a development.

I am often faced with how to justify the expenses involved in meeting my customers  IT needs. My experiences as an IT professional have enabled me to be able to see both the minutiae, the little stuff, and the big picture when examining problems.The short term benefits will be largely outweighed when you consider the big picture.

Coming from an entrepreneurial family (my brother, father, and great grandfathers all owned businesses) I have a strong appreciation for two common business considerations. ROI (Return on Investment) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Looking at the prospect of a casino in Gettysburg, I see a problem with both the ROI and TCO prospects.

First looking at the return on the investment of allowing a casino to exist in Gettysburg you have to realize that, while it would bring in some jobs, the vast majority would be minimum wage jobs at best with a select percentage being good paying jobs that would have to go to people with casino experience, and thus not from Gettysburg or even necessarily Adams County. Not a great return in that regard.

Additionally considering that  55% of gross revenue is supposed to go to the state of PA in taxes there is no guarantee that any of that money will come back to Gettysburg residents. While no one knows for sure how successful a casino might be in Gettysburg, as all projections are speculation, we can compare the results of another casino nearby, the Hollywood Casino at Penn National near Harrisburg which has been reasonably successful. In January the Hollywood took in 21.5 million for the month in gross revenues (according to an article on pennlive.com), which means that the state of PA pulls about 11.8 million of that in taxes.

Now consider that Gettysburg has a population of about 7500 according to the last census, while the state of PA has roughly 12.5 million with Philadelphia accounting for 1.5 million all by itself. It doesn’t take someone with super intelligence to figure out that 11.8 million divided across 12.5 million is 94 cents per person. For Gettysburg that means, if evenly distributed, our community would get a whopping big return of roughly $7,050 in state funds benefit per month or $84,600 year, while the casino owner would make $116.4 million for the year if earnings were consistent.

However, these numbers don't even apply when you're talking about the Mason-Dixon proposal because the Hollywood Casino used 2368 slots to make that money, where the Mason-Dixon proposal is for 600, according to Mason-Dixon's website, or roughly 25% as many. If as successful, taking 25% of 21.5 million you'd arrive at a little under 5.4 million per month which would translate to 2.97 million for the state per month. Once again divided up across the population that is about a 23.7 cents per person benefit per month translating to a benefit to Gettysburg of about $1782/month or $21,384 per year with the Mason-Dixon owners making about $29.2 million for themselves. This is a pretty lousy return to the community for allowing the casino to exist here. These numbers are, of course, hypothetical, working on the assumption that the casino is as successful as the Hollywood, which is not a sure thing, and adjusting for the scale difference of the proposed casino.

However, the elephant in the room is the economic impact the community will suffer to it's heritage tourism, which you have to consider when weighing the Total Cost of Ownership.

If successful, the casino would result in three changes to our tourism.

1. It would chase away some tourists who are passionate about the civil war and would feel the town has been tainted. This is a real change that would happen. Polls have been conducted that show it to be so. Thus, the question is not if it would happen, but instead how long it would take to happen and how many regular tourists the community would lose. Regardless, any loss in regular tourists translates to lost revenue for Gettysburg's  business owners (particularly retail businesses) and perhaps more importantly their employees who depend on it. Likewise just as importantly lost sales tax revenues from which the state benefits.
2. It would divert a portion of the remaining tourist who would come despite the existence of a casino from the town center’s shops and restaurants to the casino where they would spend not only their gambling money, but also their eating money. Once again, we’re talking about real revenue taken from the pockets of the towns business owners and their employees and diverted to the casino owners and the state. Consider again with barely any of it coming back to the community through the state.
3. It would create a new group of visitors who solely come for the casino, adding traffic and potential crime issues that would come as a result of a 24/7 casino operation, while contributing nothing except possibly gasoline sales to the town.

Weighing all these changes together the TCO would be a very real and tangible loss on two fronts for the town’s businesses , one to the state,  and a new cost to the community in terms of road maintenance needs and  law enforcement. Additionally, the casino's economic impact would likely translate to more jobs lost due to the negative impact on our businesses, than it could ever possibly compensate for with its own hiring. Also consider that suffering at the retail businesses would impact the service businesses and suppliers who serve those retailers. A very real possibility of a snowball effect exists due to the unique nature of the community and its relationship with heritage tourism.

Finally, weighing in the personal costs to our families and children in social impacts, you get a total cost of ownership to our community that really looks bleak. I believe you can plainly see it is a terrible business prospect for the community.

I'd much rather see a plentiful number of small businesses than a remaining few with one big one destroying their survivability and damaging the integrity of the community in the process.

Gettysburg is a great location that could attract large and small businesses to the area that would not carry these kinds of detrimental impacts while adding new employment opportunities. Commercial office rentals with lower rents than Frederick, DC, or Baltimore are a simple place for the community to start. A serious marketing effort would very likely bring results as many companies are looking for ways to reduce overheads in the present economy. Further, we can do so seeking to carefully build up the community in manners that would be respectful of the unique nature of the community and its rich history.  Gettysburg can do better than a casino!

Join the No Casino Gettysburg movement at: www.nocasinogettysburg.org and on Facebook.