Apr 29th, 2010
Indianapolis Adult Entertainment: The big casino gamble
… I think it won’t have a huge impact either way,” said Chris Boring, a marketing strategist who studied the Hilltop area.
“Most of the people who go there will be coming from outside the county, and they’ll take the outerbelt to get to West Broad—the casino itself is going to be pretty self-contained,” he said.
But there is potential for positive, Boring’s research suggests.
If restaurants do pop up, the area stands to benefit, as Hilltop residents “spend upwards of $50 million a year on dining and entertainment,” but they’re not spending it in their neighborhood, he said.
“They don’t have a single restaurant over there,” he said. “They are taking their dollars elsewhere.”
As for the societal ills that a casino can bring, Boring echoes neighborhood leaders who acknowledge that prostitution, drugs and crime already exist in their part of town.