Business group keeps pressure on for ‘no’ vote
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – It is no surprise to anyone that owners for a California casino company that is hoping to get voter approval in December to build a casino in Slidell will spend a great amount of money trying to convince residents in St. Tammany to vote “yes” on the upcoming decision.
But even as big as Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E) is and regardless how much money they are using to try and convince voters to support the casino, they continue to run into surprisingly powerful opposition in the form of a non-profit business group known as Stand Up St. Tammany.
The organization now claims over 450 businesses across St. Tammany Parish have signed on in support against the proposed casino, and in the past week a large number of billboards, yard signs and business signs are popping up from Slidell to Covington and Mandeville.
Stand Up St. Tammany President Chris Jean said they have purchased 50 full-size billboards that will be in front of the public from now until the election on Dec. 11.
Additionally, the group has purchased 60 signs that are being placed in front of businesses that are 4-feet X 8-feet, and 4,000 individual residential yard signs will also be seen across St. Tammany.
“Our group is gaining momentum, there is no doubt about that,” Jean said. “People are beginning to hear the real facts about this casino, and now that they are hearing our side put information out they are realizing this is a bad deal for Slidell, and for St. Tammany Parish.”
Jean cited the fact “every public forum on Social Media is 20 to 1 against the casino. We’ve walked neighbors, including the west side of the parish, and the vast majority of people don’t want this.”
He also said their own polling is showing 68 percent of residents against the casino.
Jean said that the casino advertising is making the public realize they are offering something that won’t be real, particularly the claims in P2E ads that “crime will go down” if the casino is built.
“They are saying that crime will go down if the casino comes here and that is practically a joke. It’s amazing they are even saying that since nobody believes crime goes down in an area where a casino is built. It’s the opposite thing and everyone knows it,” Jean added.
The Stand Up St. Tammany leader pointed to a recently released study from the Illinois Law Review, which just came out in October, 2021, that stated crime will positively rise when a casino shows up. Unlike others in the debate on the casino who simply state “crime will go down,” the study by the University of Illinois utilized over five years of statistics and study to come to their conclusions.
The study evaluated 4,121 subjects for the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre and determined it was clear that a problem gambler’s likelihood of committing crime increased by 4.3 to 7.6 percentage points. And an increase in problem gamblers will be part of the change in a region when a casino is built locally.
Researchers identified 10 forms of gambling-related social consequences that occur when a casino opens in a region. The most prominent problem identified was crime.
The study found that problem gamblers commit 2.2 to 3.2 times the crime of a non-problem gambler when the availability of casino gambling is there. This results in an overall rise in crime of 5.6 percent.
Jean also said that a recent public vote in Richmond Va., also for a P2E property, showed residents there voting down the proposed casino.
“It’s another sign that the public doesn’t want a casino everywhere,” he said. “And they sure don’t want it in St. Tammany Parish or Slidell.”