MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Tammy Neff has called this city of 26,000 in the heart of Michigan's Lower Peninsula home for most of her 43 years.

"It's not the quiet town it used to be," she said on a recent Saturday morning while preparing for a yard sale.

Neff chalks up most of the change to the Soaring Eagle Casino, built just east of Mount Pleasant in the mid-1990s. Owned by the Saginaw Chippewa tribe, the resort boasts five acres of gambling - 4,700 slot machines and 55 gaming tables for blackjack, poker, roulette and craps - beneath a sprawling expanse of arcing, exposed pine rafters.

Dubbed Michigan's "oil capital" decades ago, Mount Pleasant more recently has become better known as home of the state's largest Indian casino. In Ohio, it's caught the eye of folks in Botkins, a village 50 miles north of Dayton where an unidentified Shawnee tribe from Oklahoma has shown interest in building its own gambling resort, said to be similar to Soaring Eagle.

Soaring Eagle's five-floor hotel has 512 rooms; its 3,200-seat entertainment hall in recent weeks has hosted the likes of Chicago, Clint Black, Ray Charles and Loretta Lynn. With 3,700 workers, the resort recently eclipsed Central Michigan University as Isabella County's largest employer. Last year, it attracted an average of 12,000 to 15,000 people a day - more in the summer - and has fueled a recent flurry of hotel and restaurant construction on Mount Pleasant's east side.

The added traffic doesn't sit well with Neff, but her neighbor, Annette Donley, 34, gives the tribe credit. "They pay a lot of money to the community," she said, referring to the 2 percent of slot machine revenues that the tribe returns to the community. This spring alone, the tribe distributed nearly $2.6 million locally.

Backers of a gambling resort in Botkins say it would be a catalyst for economic development in a village whose industrial park has sat dormant for years. The village council sees merit in the project, and has approved a nonbinding agreement to work with National Capital I, a Beverly Hills developer representing the Shawnee tribe. The complex's most likely location would be on 293 acres along Interstate 75 that Botkins owns or has the option to buy for economic development. Terry Casey, a Columbus-based consultant who represents National Capital I, said the complex, which would take years to build, could eventually employ an estimated 4,000 people.

The proposal has divided the village of 1,200 and spurred visits from Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and state Sen. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, both of whom oppose gambling.

The seven-phase project in Botkins would begin with the construction of a bingo hall and gambling facility that would cover more than two acres. The second phase, to be developed concurrently, would include restaurants, a 250-unit hotel, a parking garage and a convenience store.

Subsequent phases would include the construction of meeting and banquet facilities, retail shops, day therapeutic spas, a cultural center and mini mall, a recreational vehicle park, a concert and/or exhibit hall, golf course, further expansion of hotels and food service, and an all-weather water park.

But Soaring Eagle's impact on Mount Pleasant doesn't necessarily foretell what Botkins could get from a gambling resort of its own, said James P. Hill, a Central Michigan University political science professor who has studied several of Michigan's Indian casinos.

That's partly because the two communities differ in key ways. Consider:

- Census figures show no American Indians lived in Botkins in 2000, and only 80 live in Shelby County. "There isn't an established Native American presence in the (Botkins) area," said Hill, who has been hired by Botkins as a consultant. "That makes it unusual."

In contrast, the Saginaw Chippewa tribe has an uninterrupted history in Isabella County. Treaties with the United States in 1855 and 1864 secured for the tribe permanent reservations in Michigan, the largest of which was the Isabella reservation.

The precursor of legalized gambling, car bingo, began on the Isabella reservation in the 1960s, when players sat in their cars, numbers were called over a loudspeaker, and winners honked their horns. In 1993, the tribe was one of 78 recognized by the federal government that signed a gaming compact with Michigan, which outlined a plan for operating casinos and stipulated that tribes donate a portion of the proceeds to local government.

Backers of the Botkins project have said Shawnees would not move to Botkins or start a reservation in Ohio, even if they establish a gambling operation in the state.

According to the 2000 Census, nearly two of five workers who lived in Botkins had manufacturing jobs. Findlay Industries, the largest employer in town, has since closed, but Shelby County's two largest employers - the Honda engine plant in nearby Anna and Copeland in Sidney - show that area residents still rely heavily on manufacturing.

In contrast, three in five workers who call Mount Pleasant home had jobs in either educational, health and social services, or arts/entertainment/recreation/accommodation and food services. That makes sense, given that the casino is the county's largest employer, followed by Central Michigan University, which has more than 2,500 workers, excluding student employees.

While most Soaring Eagle patrons drive through Mount Pleasant, much of the traffic to and from the Shawnees' casino could well bypass Botkins, Hill said. That's because the proposed gambling complex could be reached by exiting Interstate 75 south of Botkins at Ohio 274 (Exit 102), one of the region's few remaining undeveloped interchanges.

Despite those differences, representatives from Botkins made the trip to Mount Pleasant earlier this year to see Soaring Eagle for themselves and discuss with officials there how Mount Pleasant has dealt with the casino.

Noting the interest in Soaring Eagle, Saginaw Chippewa tribal spokesman Joe Sowmick said it'd be nice to hear from the Shawnees.

"We're really concerned this dialogue hasn't happened," Sowmick said.

Casey, the developer's representative, acknowledged one reason the Michigan tribe hasn't been contacted. There's a "degree of competitiveness" in the business, he said.

Not the only game in town

When it comes to growth, Soaring Eagle isn't the only game in town, local officials say.

Central Michigan University's enrollment on campus swelled nearly 19 percent between fall 1992 and fall 2002, from 16,349 to 19,380. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers have located in Mount Pleasant, the largest city within 30 miles, making it a regional hub for retail trade.

Such growth makes it difficult to measure just how much traffic, crime and growth in the service industry the casino has generated, and further complicates any views of Mount Pleasant as a bellwether for what Botkins might expect if a gambling resort comes to town.

"The amount of police coverage has grown significantly as a result of the casino," said Gary Allen, superintendent for the Mount Pleasant Public Schools. "With more eyes out there, you're going to see more things. Much of what they're seeing was probably taking place before."

William Yeagley, Mount Pleasant's public safety director, said traffic congestion has become a big issue for many locals, particularly in the last five to seven years. Much of that congestion is undoubtedly due to casino traffic, he said.

Too, the community has seen an increase in calls for service, automobile crashes and complaints of bad checks.

But Yeagley said many of the community's worst casino-related fears have not been realized.

"We do not have crack cocaine dealers standing on street corners," he said. And, "I'm not aware that there's any (prostitution) rings in operation."

Professor Hill said vandalism, drunken driving and low-class burglaries also are crimes that typically increase as casinos draw people into the community. And the resorts can encourage other social ills, among them problem gambling, domestic violence, child abuse and child neglect.

Hill said Mount Pleasant seems to have handled the daily influx of people better than many communities. After co-existing with college students, "We're used to that transient population."

Yeagley said concerns over the casino are similar to those that would accompany an amusement park such as Disney World or Cedar Point. To address those concerns, the tribe funds a traffic unit and pays 75 percent of a multijurisdictional youth services unit that serves the larger Mount Pleasant community. The tribe also helped fund a recent renovation and expansion of the city's public safety building, which houses the police and fire departments. "The tribe has been very generous," Yeagley said.

The tribe contributed $1 million toward a $6 million court building downtown that recently opened, and and also paid for an additional county prosecutor, said David Ling, an Isabella County commissioner.

The county faces a tight budget next year, Ling said, but "we would be struggling more than we are in the absence of the casino."

Still, for long-time Mount Pleasant residents who "liked it lazy," Ling said, the casino is "a mixed blessing."

"It used to be when students left for the summer, this was a sleepy little town," Ling said. "Now there's a lot of traffic."

Paul Preston Jr., Mount Pleasant's manager, said he thinks Soaring Eagle has been good for the city, though not vital.

"Quite frankly, we're pretty fortunate here," Preston said. "We have a number of economic bases that we can count on." The city, which so far has received nearly $8 million from the tribe, is in good financial shape, he said, though some capital improvements may be delayed next year if the economy remains sluggish.

Allen said the casino hasn't spurred larger enrollment in the public schools. In fact, he said, the enrollment of 4,000 is down from past years, in part because the tribe, which once had just a Montessori kindergarten program, now has a tribal school that goes through the ninth grade.

The school district, which had a budget of $37 million this past year, got $1.75 million from the tribe during that period, Allen said.

"In January, the state cut our funds and Mount Pleasant lost $240,000," Allen said. "They (the tribe) made that up to the local schools in the county. You didn't see that anywhere else."

The tribe, which has 2,932 members, uses casino money to pay for health care for all tribe members, a tribal police force and fire department, programs for tribal elders and educational programs for all ages. It also gives each adult member $1,500 a week. Those under 18 get an Indian child welfare payment that's about a fourth of that amount.

Allen said his only concern over the casino is the message its enormous revenues are sending to Indian youth, who make up 6 percent of the district's enrollment.

"How do you tell children that education is important if they're getting $80,000 a year for just being a member of the tribe?" Allen said.

Botkins isn't likely to confront that issue if it gets a casino of its own; most of the profits would go elsewhere. As in Michigan, the tribe could likely share 2 percent of casino revenues with the Shelby County community to help compensate for the added burden on local schools and services. It also would generate more municipal income tax.

Perhaps the most important difference between Mount Pleasant and Botkins is that the tiny village has a choice. Unlike Mount Pleasant, which took a neutral stance toward Soaring Eagle, Botkins can decide whether it wants to continue to court a gambling resort that could trigger tremendous growth. Or it can take its chances by remaining a rural crossroads, trolling for other kinds of business for its undeveloped industrial park.