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Kenosha Casino Backers Cash in Chips2 February 2001MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin –Feb. 2, 2001 – As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Gov. Scott McCallum's no-more-casinos stance, renewed emphatically just before his inauguration, began to sink in Thursday. "`It's over! It's done! Put a stake in it,' said Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian, referring to the ambitious plan by the Menominee tribe to buy Dairyland Greyhound Park and put a $275 million casino complex there. "…The tribe and a group of non-Indian investors have spent millions of dollars and three years of effort to try to win the multiple layers of approval needed to create a satellite reservation where a casino could be built. "…Another off-reservation casino deal in Hudson also likely shares the same fate, given McCallum's opposition. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has not yet ruled on bids for casinos in Kenosha or Hudson, but even if the agency approved the deals, the governor has the power to kill them. "…The plans of other tribes that want to open casinos off their reservations also are doomed, according to the new governor. "…The Menominee plan won the approval of Kenosha voters and had a powerful ally in ex-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who negotiated a blueprint for the Kenosha casino. But as of noon Thursday, Thompson was out of office and on his way to Washington. "…McCallum said he remained staunchly opposed to any expansion of gambling because, he said, gambling does not create wealth…" |