BELOIT, Wis. -- Gov. Scott McCallum said Thursday that he is standing firm on his position that there should be no new casinos in the state.

Casino proponents said that McCallum is not listening to the 61 percent of Beloit voters who approved a casino referendum, News 3 reports.

McCallum was in Beloit to present a $250,000 transportation grant to improve rail service to the Frito-Lay plant. After talking to city business leaders and officials about economic development, he was asked whether he will approve a casino for the city of Beloit, News 3 reports.

McCallum said that casinos are not a form of economic development, and that they take wealth from an area and don't put it back.

"We have 17 casinos in Wisconsin. Seventeen are enough. Casinos don't create new wealth, they redistribute wealth," McCallum said.

He said that those pushing casinos are wasting their time and that they would be better off pushing development in the area of emerging technologies and creating high-tech and biotechnology jobs.

"If (casino supporters) want to sit on their hands and let things sit for two years, then that's their option," McCallum said. "I would think it would be more prudent to say what can we do to build in Beloit, what can we do to have solid jobs."

Wisconsin Attorney General Jim Doyle, who might face McCallum in Wisconsin's gubernatorial race in 2002, said that he is also not in support of building more casinos, News 3 reports.