Casinos in Atlanta? Shirley says sure

Just about every year, the city of Atlanta asks the state Legislature to create a local gaming authority, presumably to explore the possibility of bringing some kind of gambling to town. The item has been on the city’s legislative wish list so long that it rarely raises eyebrows anymore. Could this year – as cash-strapped  governments everywhere cast about for new sources of revenue – be different?

Mayor Shirley Franklin has again added it to her list and yesterday had a chat with local lawmakers who seemed open to considering gambling as an option.

“There’s a general sense that we’ll see gaming within the city limits and I concur,” Franklin said.

OK, not exactly an impassioned plea for casinos, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Not one to put lipstick on a pig, Franklin pithily summed up the city’s financial picture: “We’re in a downward spiral.”

Nearly all of the mayor’s other requests focused on small tax and fee increases that would bring the city an additional million or two here and there. A casino licensing agreement and vice taxes on gambling could, on the other hand, add tens of millions to city coffers, in addition to helping jump-start redevelopment of Downtown south of Marietta Street – assuming, as most folks do, that a casino would be located at Underground Atlanta.