Natali Mizrahi
If there is a gambling casino built in Coney Island, it will undoubtedly make moneylots of money for developers and insiders who will cut those deals. If you listen to developers they will tell you that they will make money, the community will get jobs and everyone wins. However, the one thing that any gambler can tell you is: when it comes to gambling the house always wins. Everyone else usually loses.
Promised jobs never materialize, and even when they do, they are mostly part time and minimum wage. Anyone who has walked around the corner from an Atlantic City casino knows that the economic development is only for the casino. Quite literally, the next block sees an economic development of the wrong kind: as soon as casinos move in so do drug dealers, pimps and thievesnot to mention the traffic! If you thought the Belt Parkway was congested now during rush hour, you can only imagine what it will look like when thousands of gamblers are driving to Coney Island at all hours of the day and night.
When Albany proposes expanding legal gambling opportunities in New York State it is toying with neighborhoods’ and people’s lives within them. That’s why our community’s leaders recently formed the organization “Stop The Casino,” comprised of social service, non-profits and clergy and local elected officials from Midwood, Borough Park, Bensonhurst and Gravesend, with other leaders across Southern Brooklyn. With the guidance of the Sephardic Community Federation and the advice and leadership of Council Member David Greenfield, Stop The Casino is working overtime to prevent a casino from being built on Coney Island.
Research proves that the toll on the community is staggering. For example, one year ago in Ozone Park, Queens, Genting’s Resort Worlds Casino was opened next to Aqueduct Racetrack. Since then, residents have not experienced any windfall to their local economy, because according to one restaurant owner near the casino, “they’d rather spend money gambling than eatinglocal people too,” he lamented as a possible explanation as to why his business has actually gone down since the casino opened.
The Wall Street Journal, commenting on the string of empty storefronts there, says that “very little has sprung up in the way of new businesses.” Of course, there is an exception to that report, as well. One type of business that is experiencing growth: pawn shops. That’s right, four new pawn shops have opened for all of the community residents looking to trade away their possessions so they can gamble at the local casino.
20,000 local members of the community, who never gambled before, now visit the casino daily. This significant portion of residents has in one short year, been transformed into habitual gamblers. Pensioners, young adults and not to mention underage teens within a 50 mile radius of a casino have double the likelihood of becoming addicted gamblers, according to The University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. It is all about availability and opportunity.
Point of fact: individuals categorized as pathological and problem gamblers are more likely to be on welfare, have declared bankruptcy, or have been arrested. Sadly, the greatest trend amongst casino communities is the increase in bankruptcy rates. If a casino comes to Coney Island, Gravesend, Midwood, Bensonhurst, and Borough Park are all considered part of the casino community.
Astonishingly, 40% of all white-collar crime in the country is committed by gambling addicts trying to recoup their losses, but that is not all. Street crime within the vicinity of gambling casinos also quantitatively rises; theft, burglary, narcotics trade and DWI (driving while intoxicated) all go up. Ozone Park, a socio-economic community very akin to Coney Island and its environs, in the last year saw increases in robbery up 12.3%. Due to Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino, the annual number of calls to the Ledyard, Connecticut police department dramatically increased from 4,000 to 16,700 within five years of opening.
While some may think this is controllable with an increased police presence (read: costly), organized crime and prostitution rings tend to orbit casinos with little or no fear or accountability from the police. The local police precinct simply doesn’t have the resources or sophistication to take on organized crime in a residential community.
It’s not just about the high-cost of policing and the toll that increase in robberies, rapes, murders and prostitution will take on neighboring communities, it’s also about the cost to social service organizations. “Our community spends millions of dollars each year dealing with the social service challenges that any community has, whether it be loss of work or gambling addiction or substance abuse,” explained Sam Sutton, former President of Sephardic Bikur Holim. “Can you imagine how many more people will be tempted to gamble, do drugs and other illicit activities? The reality is that the cost on the community in dealing with these new problems would be literally millions of dollars more each year. That doesn’t even account for how many thousands of lives will be ruined in the process,” Sutton concluded.
“You only have to look at recent history to know that a casino will increase crime, vice and traffic,” said David Greenfield, a City Council member. “We didn’t invest our whole lives to making this community one of the greatest in America, so that a few developers can ruin it. The last thing that Southern Brooklyn needs is a casino.”
Greenfield maintains that Albany shouldn’t decide where to locate a casino in the city without approval from the City Council. He is advising Stop The Casino with this singular shared goal in mind of making sure a casino does not open up in Brooklyn.
Stop The Casino is already gaining momentum. Thanks to the support of generous community leaders, the organization has hired Steve Zeltser, a former senior aide to Councilman Mike Nelson, as its executive director and has launched an intense public campaign to stop a casino from being built on Coney Island.
Stop The Casino’s efforts have already been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, America’s most widely read newspaper. The article, on the front page of the Journal’s Greater New York Section on October 7th, detailed how local site control is emerging as a complicating factor in the casino debate.
So there is hope, but time is crucial. While the amendment expanding legal gambling must be passed by state lawmakers next year followed by a voter referendum, a grassroots organization must be in place now if it does. In that scenario, local elected officials must hear from us that we will not tolerate a casino or elected officials who support one.
Already, leading elected officials have pledged to Stop The Casino that they will do everything in their power to stop it. These officials include: Council Members Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., Mike Nelson and David Greenfield. Assembly members Steve Cymbrowitz, Helene Weinstein and Dov Hikind are all against the casino. On the Senate side, Senators Diane Savino and Marty Golden, oppose the casino, as well. We must remember that these are our friends and show our appreciation for their leadership on Election Day.
Anyone who appreciates and enjoys the recent improvements of Coney Island in the last few years knows how far the neighborhood has come and where it needs to go. The dangling of a few minimum wage jobs comes with too much baggage. A healthy, family friendly recreation area with safe pastimes like rides, shops, the New York Aquarium, an ice rink, the beach and more will bring in much more revenue in the long run.
On the flip side, the crime and addiction casinos create in their wake will cost taxpayers and citizens dearly. Jim Maney, the spokesman for The New York Council on Problem Gambling, explained that the last survey of the neighborhood exposed a 5% gambling abuse problem. With increased availability and opportunity within a 10 mile radius of a casino, “we expect an increase of up to 90%. People can walk or drive over to the casino easily and for some it will be harmful.”
Support for Stop The Casino will send a clear message that residents are not willing to risk their families’ well being for someone else’s get rich scheme. The casino developers scooping up prime, beach front real estate will certainly make the bulk of the money here, while it is the community who will ultimately pay the ultimate price.
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Stop the Casino, a newly formed coalition of civic groups, community leaders and elected officials, is charged with the mission of stopping any and all forms of casino gambling being introduced to South Brooklyn
