There is a saying in real estate that you should never believe a highly touted project is real until the steel shows up.

The steel for the Gun Lake casino has shown up, and is going up. Those who tried to kill it (mostly in Grand Rapids) clearly crapped out big time. Those who cheered it on (mostly in Kalamazoo) got what they wanted.

Like coffee, videogames, porn and community radio, gambling is a choice that can be enjoyed or abused to the point of hurting others. It is no more inherently "evil" than your weekly lotto numbers or the 50/50 raffle at your kid's hockey game.

So much of the concern in Grand Rapids was actually about money (what a shock). Many local leaders feared that the casino would pull dollars away from restaurants and hotels, so they sought government intervention to stop the project.

I have lived and worked in communities with multiple casinos. They do touch local economies in a number of ways - many of them positive. Gun Lake will create 1,600 jobs in the region. These are real jobs that people need today, not "maybe someday" jobs from our "emerging alternative energy manufacturing corridor," or similar BS.

A popular scary story is that casinos do not bring in new money, they simply suck profits out, or at best, recycle local dollars. Don't tug too hard on that thread, since you could apply the same logic to Blockbuster, Olive Garden and Macy's. Besides the Gun Lake casino will actually pay community government entities about $2 million per year, so I guess that does make them different.

Given all the old-school hand-wringing over the project, it would be actually be ironic if the Gun Lake casino wound up helping save one of West Michigan's more distressed enterprises - newspapers. In many markets, casinos have had a substantial positive impact on area advertising, buying up large amounts of space, TV time and billboards, pushing prices up in the process.

As newspapers in Kalamazoo, GR and Muskegon just announced even deeper staff cuts, I have to believe the sound of slots in Gun Lake will be music to the ears of ad sales people, deranged from months of trying to squeeze blood from an economic stone.

We should follow their lead and be happy for the help, and be comfortable enjoying blackjack and NPR - in moderation, of course.

SDP is a welcome VIP in most high-end casinos, known for his lavish tipping of short brunette cocktail waitresses and random shouts of "UNO!" during Texas Hold ‘Em.