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By DAVID A. SEATON
The Traveler

State Sen. Greta Goodwin says she is disappointed that the Cowley County Commission may support Sumner County's efforts to land a casino-resort off Interstate 35 near Wellington.

The commission on Tuesday is scheduled to vote on a resolution backing Sumner County's campaign to persuade the state Legislature to put a state-owned casino near Wellington.

But Goodwin opposes the idea and said last week that she thinks the Cowley County Commission's support is misguided.

She said Cowley would get no local revenue from a casino in Sumner County, and that her research on gambling shows that it hurts more than helps cities and towns that pursue it as an economic development tool.

"It really disturbs me that we have a County Commission that is endorsing something that they didn't take the effort to look at," Goodwin said Friday.

Goodwin also said she took issue at comments made by Commission Chairman Gary Wilson, when he said lawmakers should not legislate morality.

"I never said it was a moral issue," Goodwin said.

Wilson on Monday said he did not intend to criticize Goodwin's position on gambling. He said as an elected official, his primary concern was to create jobs and grow the local economy. Local residents already cross the Oklahoma border to gamble there.

"Those who wish to go gambling are going to go gambling," he said. "We're all adults here."

Wilson said the promise of 1,500 permanent jobs and temporary jobs created by the $300 million project persuades him that the Sumner County proposal would be good for the region.

Sumner County has also said it might share added tax revenue with Cowley for government services needed here as a result of the project.

"It's a business, it's a legal business," he said. "I look at it as jobs and a trickle down to our economy."

So does Commissioner Dick Bonfy. He was absent last month when the commission first heard from Debra Teufel, economic development director for Sumner County. But he said he will support the resolution tomorrow.

Potential developers claim it could draw 1.5 million visitors a year to the region, Bonfy said. He recognizes there are social costs such as gambling addition that would have to be addressed.

The No. 1 reason he will support it, Bonfy added, is that a large majority - 63 percent - of Sumner County voters approved a casino by a mail-in vote late last year.

"There, citizens have said 'yes,' and I feel like they've come over and asked us for some help," he explained.

But Goodwin said Sumner County has no chance of getting a casino at this time because there is not legislative support for it. She said Gov. Sebelius would not sign a bill for a Sumner County casino. For her to champion the cause would be fruitless, she said.

Goodwin also addressed recent media reports that reveal she and other lawmakers opposed to expanded gambling have accepted campaign contributions from tribal casino operators seeking to limit more gambling in Kansas.

Goodwin has received about $3,500 from such interests since 2001, she confirmed. Some call such action hypocritical, but Goodwin said the money comes from her support of tribal compacts that allowed certain tribes to build casinos to help lift them out of poverty.

"They were most appreciative because it wasn't an easy thing to get the compacts," she said. "It has nothing to do with gambling."

Teufel, however, has been trying to persuade Goodwin and other south-central Kansas lawmakers to take up Sumner County's cause. Goodwin is ignoring the will of voters, she said.

The social costs that gambling might create already exist in Sumner County because of the lack of good job opportunities, she argued. Developers interested in the casino project have experience in operating casinos, she said.

They estimate the average wage of the 1,500 jobs would be $12 per hour, Teufel said.

The total project would encompass 1.2 million square feet. Gambling would occupy 80,000 square feet. Convention space, restaurants and other attractions would constitute most of the facility, she said.

"It's nothing like these little metal buildings they build down in Oklahoma that draw people to gamble away their money," she said.