Economic impact of Cherokee casino leaves the reservation.

• Position: Western

Gambling, proponents predicted, would be the biggest boon to western North Carolina since the other one--Daniel--crossed the Blue Ridge. Sin, critics cried, calling it the road to perdition when Harrah's Cherokee Casino opened in 1998. However, the smart money now calls it the path to prosperity: A new report by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians shows the casino has grossed $1.6 billion in 10 years. The Cherokees own the casino and, except for a management fee to the Las Vegas-based operator, pocket the profit, but the economic impact reaches beyond the Qualla Boundary, as the 56,000-acre Indian reservation is officially known.

"It attracts people, and people bring money," says Jim Smith, a professor at Western Carolina University's Institute for the Economy and the Future. "That's like replacing 10 or so paper companies that have gone bankrupt out here or replacing a few thousand manufacturing jobs that have disappeared." About 3.6 million people visited last year, catered to by more than 1,900 casino, hotel and other workers. Only about 360 tribal members--one in five employees--were on the $73 million casino payroll last year, spokesman Charles Pringle says. The rest of the work force came...