The odds are very good that it’s time for Colorado to look hard at changing and expanding gambling in the state — but Amendment 68 is the wrong way to do it.
The idea has merit. Despite all the hyperbole being showered on voters by existing Colorado casino owners in an effort to defeat the proposal, passing this measure would not by itself crush the state’s current casino towns. And Amendment 68 would certainly pour millions of dollars into the state’s public schools system, a system that desperately needs millions of dollars in new revenue — but not like this.
The measure would change constitutional language that created mountain-town gambling and expand it to the Arapahoe Park horse-racing track in Aurora. The track struggles right now. It’s the only horse racing left in Colorado, and it’s losing the interest of spectators here, just like tracks all across the country.
So why not turn it into a casino and make some money? The mountain towns of Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek have had their chances, and they blew it. In 1990, Colorado voters were sold a pipe dream about turning the near-dead mining towns into historical, entertainment Meccas, complete with Old West style casinos and saloons. Black Hawk is nothing but a collection of tawdry casinos that have no more to do with the original character of the area than Seven Up and grenadine have to do with Shirley Temple. Central City has practically become the same ghost town it was before gambling was legalized. What was promised as a way to create unique tourist destinations complete with restaurants, shows and shops have become factories where mostly struggling senior citizens attach their wallets to slot machines and get bled. A few million dollars each year is siphoned off to community colleges, and other than that, the empire has built Denver a massively expensive state history museum that’s years from being paid for.
It’s a bust, Colorado. Since these towns refuse to even try and get it right, why not expand gambling to other parts of Colorado and revisit the formula that scrapes tax revenue off the top gambling proceeds?
Here’s why. No one asked Aurora and Arapahoe County if they want to turn Arapahoe Park race track into a casino. With Central City and Black Hawk as perfect examples of how gambling can fail, it’s essential that a casino expansion be incorporated into long-term, credible master plans, and that takes serious buy-in from local communities. That buy-in is critically absent with Amendment 68.
It doesn’t mean it can’t happen. We disagree with critics that the change would create unsolvable traffic nightmares in the area. But to prevent just another Black Hawk, this time in southeast Aurora, the public first deserves to see how gambling expansion would enhance the community, rather than just become an annoying squatter in the region.
Since the politics are far too thorny to give the matter a fair hearing from either side of the issue, we get it that expanded gambling proposals will never come from the state Capitol. But it should never come as an unwelcome surprise to a community expected to host it.
The idea is worth pursuing, but only after potential casino owners explain to area local governments what they’ll do to use gambling as a way to enhance tourism as part of an entertainment master plan. Colorado doesn’t need just a closer place to milk gamblers too unmotivated to get to the state’s sad, high-country gambling factories. It needs a plan. Vote “no” on 68 and wait for a complete proposal.