Please take into close account the opinions of North Country business leaders before reaching any conclusions about legalizing casinos in the North Country.

Check out this North Country business leaders' roundtable discussion, hosted by the New Hampshire Business Review, published today and quoted below (emphasis added):
 
The participants:
 
·     Craig Clemmer, director of marketing, Omni Mount Washington Resort.
·     Jac Cuddy, executive director, Mt. Washington Valley Economic Council.
·     Katy Curnyn, director of retail and market access, Women's Rural Entrepreneurial Network, Bethlehem.
·     Mike King, executive director of North Country Council.
·     David Ritchie, director of sales and marketing, Omni Hotels.
·     Barry Sondern, interim general manager, Omni Mount Washington Resort.
·     Jim Tibbetts, president and chief executive, First Colebrook Bank.
 
Question. Another assumption from some people in the southern part of the state is, "Just put some casinos up there and everything will be great. It will get some people some jobs."

Ritchie: Personally speaking, I'm not a big casino fan. We can learn a lesson in a bad economy. The two casinos in Connecticut are suffering greatly. Think of all the other activities people can do today. I'm just not sure if those casinos are ever really going to come back. I think people are finding other things to do in their lives and experiences that they can have. I don't know if that's New England. I think our strengths lie in who we are and not who we try to be. It's kind of like trying to create a better mousetrap. Are you ever really going to do that? Why not work on the strengths that we have here now?

Cuddy: A lot of talk was why don't you take the grand hotels and allow gambling to be in the grand hotels? I guess I wonder where you guys would stand on that.
Ritchie: We're not in that business. I can't speak for the company, but I don't see any opportunity for it. Personally, I think we are what we are, and that would be a big change. I don't know if it would be successful or not.

Tibbetts: During our three years of studying across the four states in our Sustainable Economy Initiative plan there was never a mention of gaming. That's one of the industries we didn't think to pursue. It's being pushed from another area. It's not really high on the list up here.