Casino Plan Is a Crapshoot

There’s a lot riding on Channel Islands Harbor. How county leaders decide to develop this underused but high-potential parcel could determine whether it becomes a jackpot or a loser for the county’s tourism economy.

One thing the harbor area does not need is a Las Vegas-style casino. We applaud the Board of Supervisors for rejecting a proposal to build one there.

A Nevada gambling corporation had offered to buy acreage at Channel Islands Harbor and build a 250-room hotel-casino with slot machines and gaming tables. To comply with legal restrictions on gambling operations, the group proposed to convert the land into an Indian reservation, an increasingly common end-run maneuver. (California voters last year approved Proposition 1A, which amended the Constitution to allow Indian tribes to operate slot machines and blackjack tables at reservation casinos.)

Paragon Gaming of Las Vegas presented the proposal to supervisors at a closed session last month. Board members, realizing that a Las Vegas-style resort would create havoc in the laid-back oceanfront community, turned it down.

Paragon, a limited partnership headed by gambling executives Diana Bennett and Scott Menke, proposed buying 10 acres at the 110-acre harbor for construction of a hotel with showrooms, restaurants and shops. The casino would have included 2,000 slot machines and 175 gaming tables.

Backers say the project would produce hundreds of permanent jobs and bring to county government $10 million from selling the land and an annual income beginning at $18 million--10% of gross gaming revenue--and increasing rapidly after that.

But those incentives didn’t outweigh supervisors’ concerns that the venture would disrupt a quiet neighborhood, clog roads and change the family-oriented image enjoyed by the county.

“I think we’d be creating a monster,” Supervisor Judy Mikels told The Times. “Would I like the money? You betcha. But I think it comes at too high of a price.”

Mikels and Supervisor John K. Flynn expressed concerns about the problems that sometimes accompany casinos and their 24-hour operations, particularly the potential for crime. When a large card-club casino was proposed a few years ago, Oxnard vigorously opposed it.

Although the harbor is in Oxnard, the county controls the land flanking it and grants leases to its tenants. In recent years, tourist traffic at the harbor has languished and vacancy rates have risen. Among other problems, water pollution at Channel Islands Harbor Beach Park, better known as Kiddie Beach, has been so persistent that Heal the Bay said last year that it was the most polluted of 250 beaches between San Luis Obispo and San Diego counties.

Numerous plans have been proposed to pump life back into the harbor, including an aquarium, marine research center and expanded version of the existing Maritime Museum. None has the sizzle of the casino strategy and it’s understandable that some area business owners find it appealing.

We believe that making substantial upgrades to the harbor facilities and marketing it creatively will help bring back the crowds to this unique asset. We agree that bold steps may be necessary.

But a full-on casino would be a crapshoot that could cost that corner of Ventura County more than it can afford to lose.