(WSBT) Now that people are placing their bets, local communities are hoping they'll cash in as well. Under an agreement with the state, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians will give local governments 2 percent of the net win.

But the division of that money is still a point of contention. New Buffalo is rolling the dice, hoping people coming to the Four Winds Casino will be an economic boon for the city and not a drain.

Much of that rests on getting a cut of the money the casino will pay to local governments.

"If we don't get part of that revenue, we'll be taking money out of the general fund to support more officers and more cars. And that's not the way it was supposed to work," said Bob Westergren, New Buffalo's mayor.

Westergren will be watching a vote later this month. It will decide the third member on a local revenue sharing board overseeing how casino money is divided.

Representatives from the county and New Buffalo Township will pick the final member from other surrounding governments.

"I don't think there's a question that we should be the third seat. Just drive around our community and you can see we're going to be the most impacted," Westergren said.

Estimates are the casino could pay out more than $4 million to local agencies in 2008. Forty-five percent of that will go to township governments, the county and schools. It's to make up for the money they will no longer be getting in property taxes.

Another 10 percent goes to the county for administration. The final 45 percent is for public safety — to pay for the increased enforcement the casino will require.

New Buffalo Township could get the biggest chunk — almost $700,000 next year. It's contracted with the County Sheriff's Department for five additional patrols in the area. The tribe is also providing a police force of 16. Sheriff Paul Bailey says he expects his officers to be busier, but he doesn't expect to fill the jail with casino trouble makers.

"Their biggest impact is traffic. Of course, they have a few incidents when you bring that many people in, but it's not going to be that big of an impact on our jail, I believe," said Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey.

And if figures from Michigan City are any indication, he may be right.
The Blue Chip Riverboat Casino opened there in 1997. The following year, they saw a spike in violent crime like robberies. But the numbers in recent years have been lower than pre-casino numbers.

Berrien County administrator Bill Wolf says the revenue board tried to anticipate everyone's public safety needs with the distribution formula, but the board can adjust that in the future after it sees who is impacted most.

"There's going to be impact, positive and negative that we haven't even thought of yet," said Bill Wolf, Berrien County Administrator.

That's why Mayor Westergren wants to make sure his city has a voice.

"The two members who are already on there made up the distribution and the distribution is not very kind to the city of New Buffalo. We're going to be expected to do a lot of the work involving the casino," he said.

New Buffalo is competing with Three Oaks Township and Chikaming Township for the third seat on the local revenue sharing board. But the bottom line here is there's a lot of money to divide up and everyone would like a say in how it's doled out.