(WSBT) As many as 15,000 people a day are expected to visit the Four Winds Casino when it opens in New Buffalo later this week. That's not the only place hoping to cash in. Local tourist attractions are hoping to see an increase in visitors, too.

"People don't get caught up in boundaries. So the fact there's more people coming to the region and New Buffalo being as close as it is, I don't think it can do anything except help the region," said Greg Ayres of the South Bend Mishawaka Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Ayres hopes to see people traveling through the area on the way to and from Four Winds Casino.

"There will be some people who will travel by air. And if they travel by air, they're going to fly into South Bend," Ayres said.

Already, gamblers make their way through the South Bend Airport — on the direct flights to Las Vegas. While tourism officials hope the flights will bring people here for gambling, people headed to Las Vegas say the local casino won't be the same as the strip.

"Nothing can replace Vegas. It's a whole different world," said Dave McNitt of Elkhart.

LaPorte County hopes to work with Four Winds to increase visitors outside the casino walls. But one of the county's biggest tourism draws is the Blue Chip Casino. Officials there say they're not concerned the Four Winds will take business away.

Boyd Gaming, which operates the Blue Chip says, "Facing new competition is nothing new." They says they've operated for years "in some of the most intensely competitive gaming markets in the world." They're confident they "can hold [their] own against new competition here as well."

"People who are interested in gaming like to go to a lot of casinos. We've never seen a problem with the other four counties in Lake County so we don't see that this will be much different," said Susan Bietry of the LaPorte County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Like South Bend, LaPorte County hopes people will travel to other attractions. Bietry says the exception is hard core gamblers.

"They want to go gambling. It's fun and different, but once they're done with that, they're looking for other things to do and once they see that there's a lot more to do they come back," Bietry explained.

Mike Hosinski isn't convinced. He was part of Taxpayers of Michigan Against Casinos — a group that spent a decade trying to fight the Four Winds.

"Gamblers are gamblers. They're not tourists. The idea or notion that this is going to bring a tourist class to New Buffalo is fantasy," he said.

Hosinski says after 10 years of fighting, he's ready to sit back to watch and see who was right.

Almost all the travelers WSBT News spoke with who were headed to Las Vegas say they'll still go there for the atmosphere. But one woman did admit she's looking forward to seeing what the Four Winds has to offer.