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Raymond Hitchcock: The facts about the Wilton Rancheria's casino plan

The resort and casino will create sustainable jobs in a community that badly needs them – 1,700 to 2,000 full-time positions and 3,000 direct and indirect jobs as spending ripples through the economy.

It will not be a magnet for crime. Don’t take my word for it. Elk Grove police Chief Bryan Noblett recently told residents that his department studied other communities with casinos and found no “significant uptick in crime.”

Many national studies have reached similar conclusions.

A vocal minority of Elk Grove residents opposes the project, but most see the obvious benefits, including the transformation of an abandoned mall – a true blight – into a shopping and entertainment area that Elk Grove residents very much want.

That is why the Elk Grove City Council and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support us. And why support has come from across the community – the Police Officers Association, United Pastors of Sacramento, Region Business, the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce, among others.