The debate over Proposal A wages on, but adding to the growing list of supporters is UNLV Professor of Public Administration and nationally recognized gaming expert Dr. William Thompson.  His name may sound familiar - he was brought to Guam by the anti-casino gaming group Lina'la Sin Casino four years ago to speak against a proposal that was on the ballot in Decision 2004 that would have allowed for resort destination casino gaming.

The initiative at the time was backed by the Citizens for Economic Diversity.  "Four years ago I said you had a proposition that said you had bad gambling your proposition," Dr. Thompson recalled.  "Four years ago was going to rely on local players, no restrictions.  Ten very small casinos, not a single casino big enough to attract a visitor to have a big showroom to have a comp program to support junkets.  No casino will be big enough.  There will be ten very small casinos and all ten of them would be owned by people that lived off of Guam

"So all of the profits were going to fly away."

"This is a different proposition"  - Dr. William Thompson

Dr. Thompson told those who were at a community briefing at Guam Greyhound in Tamuning this afternoon, noting how he hadn't changed his methods of conducting analysis; rather it was the proposal that changed.  "Now, you have a program that will restrict entrance to all players, but included there will be but distance them from local players," he detailed.  "You'll have a composition for one single casino that can put together programs of entertainment and also programs to attract tourists from Japan, from the U.S., from China, from Korea, from the Philippines - it will be big enough.

"And the casino will be operated and controlled from people who are residents of Guam, not only that they pledged to keep 100% of the profits here and the big area of profits after taxes and social programs is building a convention center.  So this is a different proposition."

The proposal, which will be on the November 4 General Election ballot for Decision 2008, would allow for casino gaming at the Guam Greyhound Race Park for tourists only and would provide a portion of the proceeds to public education, healthcare and law enforcement.  

Thompson is an expert on gaming issues and has appeared on national shows like the Today Show on NBC, CNN's Crossfire and 48 Hours on CBS.