Editorial
Casino idea alluring, but it's still a bad bet
It is completely understandable why the powerful ILWU has decided, apparently, to get on the pro-gambling bandwagon in Hawai'i.
The union recently testified in favor of a plan to build an upscale $1 billion casino and resort at Ko Olina on West O'ahu. Its focus was on the thousands of construction jobs, the 10,000-plus (presumably ILWU-organized resort jobs) and the taxes such an operation would pump into state coffers.
It adds up to an appealing package for a union that has seen its traditional agricultural base decline.
The ILWU remains a potent political force at the Legislature, particularly among Neighbor Island lawmakers. So its voice on this matter will be heard and respected.
But before this train leaves the station, lawmakers and union leaders alike must consider carefully what they would get get.
A new billion-dollar casino/resort would indeed produce a lot of construction and tourism jobs. But there is nothing particularly magic about this kind of construction or this kind of resort. A billion dollar's worth of new resort and hotel development of any kind would offer the same kind of payoff.
Is it obvious that nothing will happen at Ko Olina without the addition of a casino? That's far from certain. A great deal of construction, hotel/resort and other, is slated for the Ko Olina area, although the the current post-Sept. 11 slump may have put some of it behind schedule.
And elsewhere, hotel renovations and rebuilding are up substantially, without the "added value" of gambling. One example is the planned $300 million Outrigger Hotels project in Waikiki.
Then there's the fact that the most likely developer is Sun International, which has an apparently successful casino-hotel-aquarium operation in the Bahamas. That guarantees that while the construction and resort worker paychecks will stay here, the profits from gambling will be shipped elsewhere.
And it is a virtual certainty that the profits off a casino will come at the expense of profits that might otherwise have been earned elsewhere.
Rather, it is likely to be an attraction or diversion that will appeal to some, but will largely take a share of the dollars that would have otherwise been spent on other attractions in the Islands.
Some have suggested that allowing gambling will bring about the moral ruination of Hawai'i. That's a stretch, considering the amount of legal (and illicit) gambling that is indulged in today by local residents.
But as an economic bet, the evidence today suggests that it adds up to bad odds for Hawai'i.
