The small New Mexico city of Clovis may get a racino, but not everyone is happy about it.
Although no one is currently pushing a solid proposal for a racino in the town there is a lot of buzz about it. A couple of the city’s commissioners are interested in pursuing the option. Clovis City Commissioner Chris Bryant told the Clovis News Journal: “I don’t know how long it will take, but we’re looking at a few years down the road.”
Talk of a racino in Clovis may be premature since although the New Mexico Racing Commission has said it plans to issue a racino license, it has not announced a schedule for when the process will begin or end.
Clovis wouldn’t be the only town in New Mexico interested in such a racino.
This week Dr. Guy Clark, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition Against Gambling was scheduled to speak against the idea at the High Plains Patriots Society.
Clark’s talk will center on his assertion that small towns that host racinos see their crime rates go up. Clark told the Journal: “Casinos or racinos don’t really do much of anything for the surrounding businesses. They promise they will cause revitalization, but they never deliver on that promise.” He uses Atlantic City as an example of a city where “a big slum” sprang up adjacent to its casino district.
Clovis City Commissioner Bobby Sandoval questions Clark’s statistics. Last week he said, “I think generally crime rates increase in larger cities. Clovis is a small city or a large town, and everybody knows each other, so that’s a good thing. We have police but people of Clovis take care of each other.”
Many residents are in the middle and are open to the idea that a racino would give a boost to the economy of the small town. They note that a racino could draw visitors from a hundred mile radius; visitors who might stay at local motels, shop and eat at local restaurants.
Sandoval pushed that point last week when he told the Journal: “Investors will make a lot of money, horse-race people will make some money and the state will make some money, but what Clovis will make is what I call ‘residual money.’” He added, “That’s about all of the money the city’s going to make is the additional funds we get from hotels, motels and restaurants.”
He’s not blind to the downsides, however. “People need to realize it has its drawbacks,” he said. “There will be people gambling that can’t afford to gamble. We have absolutely no control over it whatsoever.”
