Washington Post

Dear Editor:

The headline to Jonathan Weisman’s Sept. 22 article: “In Break With Tradition, Casinos May Get Tax Breaks, Too,” elicits an obvious question. “Why not?”  As Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said, we “should be treated like any other industry.”

It is outrageous to imply, as the article does, that the men and women who work at our properties (all of whom our companies continue to pay in Katrina’s wake) deserve to be treated like second-class citizens because of some bias toward our completely legal and legitimate business.  The nearly 14,000 gaming industry employees along the Mississippi Gulf Coast pay taxes like everyone else, and they need the jobs our industry provides. 

The casinos of the Mississippi Gulf Coast pay more than their fair share of taxes, too, contributing more than $120 million in tax revenue to the state of Mississippi and local governments last year, in addition to federal corporate taxes.  How can anyone make an argument that we shouldn’t be treated like all other industries?  Gaming facilities certainly were not treated differently under past enterprise zone-type legislation for disaster relief, which has traditionally removed any carve-outs so the legislation would rightly help all businesses affected by disasters.

To imply that our industry should not receive assistance to rebuild because our companies are going to rebuild anyway goes against the spirit of this legislation.  Our companies should not be punished for remaining committed to these communities and to our employees in the region.  If the federal government’s goal is to make certain the economies of the affected areas are not damaged forever because of this natural disaster, denying aid to large employers that provide a significant source of tax revenue for the state certainly runs counter to this aim.

And, the idea that the gaming industry should somehow not receive support because we have properties elsewhere, if applied across the board, would exclude hundreds – if not thousands – of other businesses that were destroyed.

The article gets one thing right: The gaming industry is committed to the Gulf Coast; but it is dead wrong in suggesting we don’t deserve the same help as other businesses there.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
President and CEO
American Gaming Association