• The city manager of West Wendover, Nev., says his town would not exist without gambling by Utahns.

• Wyoming Downs racetrack near Evanston says 85 percent of its gamblers come from Utah, as do most of its horses and jockeys.

Money from Utah gamblers, among others, helps Nevada avoid all state income taxes and sales tax on food. It helps Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico raise extra millions for schools or building programs — while Utah moans about its worst-in-the-nation school spending per pupil.

Utahns' gambling also helps its neighbors raise money for programs to treat their own "problem gamblers" — and their extra crime and social problems. But none of that money flows back to Utah to treat its problem gamblers and the ills they bring home.

Following is a look at those border gambling operations, how they enrich border states, and what they do to attract Utahns.

WEST WENDOVER, NEV.

"If it weren't for gaming, West Wendover would not exist," says City Manager Chris Melville. "Ninety percent of our economy is based on tourism" — with the lion's share coming from Wasatch Front residents who make the two-hour-or-so drive there to briefly escape Utah's ban on gambling.

An economic development study the city commissioned has estimated, based on surveys, that Wasatch Front residents spent $218 million a year on gaming in 2000; other data suggest it has increased steadily since then.

The West Wendover study indicates the Nevada city captures 60 percent of it.

The new Morning News poll bears that out: It shows that 42 percent of Utahns say they have gambled in West Wendover sometime in their lives, including 21 percent who did so in the past year.

Melville said West Wendover itself spends about $150,000 a year on advertising, focused mostly on Utah. While casinos spend even more than that to advertise, they did not respond to requests for information about their advertising budgets.

The five casinos in Wendover offer plenty of perks for customers who accumulate enough points for money spent: free hotel rooms, free dinners, free cigarettes, free drinks, free golf, free gifts, free concert tickets, and even free round-trip limousine service.

The sister Peppermill, Montego Bay and Rainbow casinos even are offering a drawing for a free home valued at $260,000 that television ads said could be built in Utah. Gamblers earn more tickets to put in the drawing based on how much they spend.

In addition, cheap "fun buses" offer transportation to Wendover, with a buffet included in the price plus cash back for gambling.