Alcatraz Casino Plan Given Longshot Odds

What are the odds of building a city-owned gambling casino on Alcatraz Island, the celebrated “Rock” in San Francisco Bay that was once the maximum-security home of Al Capone?

Don’t put your last chips on it.

Six members of the city’s Board of Supervisors, faced with the prospects of employee layoffs and a wage freeze to make up for a projected $172.4-million municipal budget deficit, this week decided to ask city voters June 7 what they think of the idea.

But even if voters approve, it would take an act of Congress--and a California constitutional amendment--before the slot machines, roulette tables and baccarat shoes could be set up on the island.

Historic Landmark

The 12-acre island is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and belongs to the National Park Service, which last year took 765,000 visitors on tours of the old prison, complete with visits to “the hole” and the cell that held Robert Stroud, the celebrated Birdman of Alcatraz. Alcatraz is classified as a national historic landmark by the Park Service.

Brian O’Neill, the Park Service superintendent who manages Alcatraz, was decidedly cool to the idea Friday.

“Are the American people ready to sell off one of their national parks to help the city of San Francisco pay off its deficit?” O’Neill asked. “I think the supervisors acted quite precipitously.”

On Wednesday, six supervisors signed the ballot advisory measure. Several said they did so because of the city’s need for new revenue to offset its the budget deficit.

Warren Hinckle, a newspaper columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, pushed the casino idea during his unsuccessful mayoral campaign last fall, but it received little attention until this week.

Campaign Promise

On Tuesday, Hinckle met with Supervisor Richard Hongisto and a group of San Francisco supporters. On Wednesday, the last day to place measures on the June ballot, the group persuaded the supervisors to sign the measure. Hinckle, in a Page 1 column in the San Francisco Examiner on Thursday, called the action a fulfillment of his campaign promise.

He claims that the casino could bring the city $150 million a year in revenues but did not say in his column how he arrived at that figure. Neither he nor the supervisors have estimated the start-up costs to the city.

Scott Shaefer, speaking for Mayor Art Agnos, said, “It’s an intriguing idea, and any new idea is worth exploring.”

Others are not so sure.

“The idea that it would solve our deficit problem is ludicrous,” said Supervisor Bill Maher, who did not sign the measure. “By the time it would happen, we’d be out of the deficit.”

If San Francisco voters approve the idea, it faces a lengthy battle before becoming a reality. Congress, which has never given up national park land, would have to remove Alcatraz from the park system and give it to the city.

Amend Constitution

The state, which has its own gambling operation in the California Lottery, would have to amend its Constitution to allow the potential competition of a casino on the island.

But the casino idea is not the first unorthodox proposal for transforming The Rock, as it was known during its prison years. Other ideas have included turning it into a holistic health center, a crab farm or a monument to the space program.