There is little uncertainty on this bet: When Toledo's casino opens two weeks from Tuesday, Detroit's treasury be a loser.
The question is how much will it lose.
Detroit already is near bankruptcy, and one study says it could lose up to $30 million a year in its casino tax revenues by 2015, though other observers believe the hit could be less severe.
Detroit now receives about 15% of its general fund revenue from casino taxes.
Two of the four Ohio casinos will open this month, including the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland on Monday and the Hollywood Casino in Toledo on May 29. Casinos in Columbus and Cincinnati will follow.
The projected impact is in a report from McKinsey & Co., a premier global management consulting firm. McKinsey says that Detroit's gaming revenues will be on a downward trend anyway because of increasing competition from casinos nationwide. The introduction of casinos in Ohio will dramatically shrink the geographic area from which Detroit's three casinos draw customers.
