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Dodge City — When the frontier was still open, gambling helped draw cowboys and other visitors here.

These days, Dodge City depends heavily on nostalgia, drawing tens of thousands of tourists who want to relive a little of the Old West. But local officials hope gambling will be part of their community's entertainment again soon.

"Who would not want to come gamble in Dodge City?" said Andy Stanton, director of the Dodge City Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Local tourism officials estimate that 100,000 people passed through the turnstiles at Boot Hill Museum last year, from all 50 states and 47 foreign nations. Visitors drank at the Longbranch Saloon, watched gunfights and read grave markers at the world-famous cemetery.

Gambling supporters said this week that a casino could bring five times as many visitors annually to a city where Wyatt Earp Boulevard is the main street.

"If Dodge City can't capitalize on historical tourism, I don't know who can," said Bob Wetmore, president of the local economic development corporation.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has proposed an expansion of gambling to allow the state to own up to five large casinos. Her plan contemplates contracting with private developers to build and operate the casinos.

Jeff Thorpe, a banker who leads Boot Hill Gaming, a group that would seek a casino license, said gambling makes sense in Dodge City, given its past and its current reliance on tourism.

He estimated a casino would collect about $54 million a year in gross revenues, create 300 full-time jobs and generate an annual payroll of more than $7.8 million.

His estimates assume a casino with 1,000 slot machines, each collecting an average of $150 a day. He also wants to see table games such as blackjack and roulette.

"In Dodge City, you should be able to put your foot up on a brass rail and put a $5 chip on green felt," Thorpe said.

The city already is planning a $30 million special events center, to be funded through a sales tax local voters approved five years ago. Officials haven't selected a site for the center, and Thorpe said it could be near a casino -- a fact he hopes would boost Dodge City's chances for landing new gambling.

Thorpe recognizes the potential negative social impact, such as bankruptcies and divorces, but believes the positive economic impact on the community is far greater.

He said most churches have indicated they won't support a casino but also won't actively oppose it, either.

As for moral arguments against gambling, he said, "If you totally subscribe to that, there are so many things we would have to take away. First would be alcohol. Yet it's part of our social fabric."

Wetmore, who also heads the chamber of commerce, said developing a casino is important for Dodge City because, "Our ability to land manufacturing jobs has gone away."

"We used to have hundreds of leads a year from traditional industries," he said. "Now there are literally dozens."

Stanton said: "Whatever we can do to get people here to spend money, we need to do."

Wetmore said Dodge City's location in the state's southwest corner will help it pull people from Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico.

He said if the desire is to have a destination that draws tourists, Dodge City is superior to even Wyandotte County, where a casino would draw largely from the Kansas City market and help keep Kansans from patronizing Missouri river boats.

"A Wyandotte County casino would be a plug to keep money from flowing to the Missouri casinos," Wetmore said. "Out here we would be bringing in money from areas outside the state."

Dodge City's casino plan calls for setting aside 1 percent of gross revenues going for the Boot Hill Museum, and 1.5 percent each for the city and Ford County. The proposal also includes 1 percent for Wild West Kansas, a currently unfunded 22-county western Kansas tourism alliance.

"Out here, if we tried to support a casino with the population within 50 miles, it wouldn't be bigger than a pup tent," he said.