Gov. David Ige said today he is opposed to allowing a casino to be built on Oahu as proposed last week by the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

The proposal to develop a casino resort on lands set aside for Native Hawaiians in Kapolei was approved in a vote at the Hawaiian Homes Commission last week. The next step for the plan was to ask Ige to include it in his legislative agenda for 2021.

Ige said this morning on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii program, “The benefits (of a casino) would not exceed the social costs of gambling.”

He added, “It does not provide economic value to our community.”

The Hawaiian Homes Commission voted 5-4 to ask the Legislature to adopt a bill allowing development of a single casino on a commercial parcel that is part of a land trust created a century ago to return Hawaiians to their native lands.