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The proposed Potawatomi casino expansion could help generate $12 billion in revenue on its Milwaukee facility over the next 25 years, with a trickle-down windfall during that period of $180 million each to the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. New figures provided by the tribe and calculations by the Journal Sentinel suggest dramatic growth at what is already the highest-grossing casino in the state. Local government payments by the Forest County Potawatomi tribe would rise to an average of some $7.2 million annually over the 25-year life of the tribe's new gambling agreement.

That's almost double last year's Potawatomi payments of $3.8 million to each local governmental unit and some 46% more than this year's $4.9 million, a figure that was artificially inflated because the tribe delayed a state payment. The $360 million in total projected local payments comes on top of the $750 million the tribe is expected to pay the state, under terms of the gambling compact amendment signed this week.

The higher local payment sums offer local officials at least the prospect of tapping into the anticipated quarter-century jackpot to help bail out strapped city and county budgets, a tactic officials said they would examine. The new Potawatomi deal with the state offers greater economic assurance of a long-running revenue stream for the city and county, tribal officials say.