So said Brent Larkin in the Plain Dealer two weeks ago, arguing that Cleveland officials shouldn’t grant Dan Gilbert a requested walkway from a parking garage to the so-called temporary casino at Tower City, until Gilbert comes forward with tangible plans for the “permanent” state-of-the-art casino that voters were promised in what Larkin calls the “deceptive sales pitch” of 2009.

On top of his criticism of Gilbert’s failure to make any apparent progress on the “Phase 2″ casino development, Larkin notes that, “the really big con — the one designed to hoodwink voters throughout Ohio into voting for the 2009 casino ballot issue — involved projections made during the campaign of taxes the four casinos would generate.” Specifically, he cites the Ohio Department of Taxation analysis, created with input from the gaming industry, that projected up to $643 million in taxes generated by the four casinos. Current projections hold that just under $310 million will actually come in, supporting Larkin’s conclusion that the 2009 numbers were “pure fiction.”

None of which accounts for estimates that the Cleveland casino alone drains hundreds of millions annually from Northeast Ohioans’ pockets, including a significant part from those who can least afford to lose (Recovery Resources of Cleveland reports 2.5 times more addiction cases this year over 2011 numbers).

And there’s a case to be made that the walkway shouldn’t be built at all, no matter what happens with “Phase 2.”

In any event, Gilbert’s “success” in Cleveland has him well on his way to becoming an international gaming mogul, with business now underway in Detroit, Kentucky, Baltimore, and Toronto, as well as “online.”

Meanwhile, his Cleveland Cavaliers are slated to win a top-5 pick in tomorrow night’s NBA draft lottery, to go along with three more first-rounders in a draft that one NBA GM has called, “historically weak.” It will be the third consecutive year that the Cavs have had at least one top-5 pick, and the third consecutive year that experts have complained about a weak draft class. This pattern is expected to break next year, with the Cavs in do-or-die playoff contention mode just in time for a 2014 draft class that’s supposed to be the best in a decade.

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In other news, here’s Steve Doerschuk at the Canton Repository on Jason Campbell’s “early move” in the Browns QB race.