Word - Casino overkill

Since his early days on Atlanta City Council, Robb Pitts has advocated casino gambling as the cure for the metro area’s money woes. As an at-large Fulton County commissioner, however, Pitts’ craps-table crusade has gone into overdrive as he touts gambling as the solution to just about every fiscal setback.

“Georgia has just received another wake-up call with the impending closure of the Hapeville Ford assembly plant. ... Surely now must be the time for gaming in Georgia?”

-- Pitts, in a Jan. 27 letter to the General Assembly

“Currently one of Atlanta’s oldest cultural icons, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has embarked on a $300 million dollar campaign to create a new concert hall. ... A painless way to fund this shortfall is revenue generated from casino gambling.”

-- In a Jan. 6 letter to the General Assembly

“Projects like the Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, and the proposed NASCAR Hall of Fame stand ready to bring a new revenue stream for the county and the state. ... Just two casinos could create as many as 3,000 jobs and approximately $200 million or more in revenue.”

-- From the Fall 2005 issue of Robb’s Review, Pitts’ newsletter

“Revenues from casino gambling could be earmarked to help fund the Grady Health System, which is one of only two Level 1 trauma centers in the Southeast.”

-- In a Dec. 19, 2005, letter to the General Assembly

“The two casinos we envision should produce sufficient net revenues to amortize the costs of the City of Atlanta’s $3 billion sewerage system improvements without an increase in sewerage rates.”

-- As quoted Dec. 19, 2003, in the Atlanta Business Chronicle