Is "Legalized" Gambling a Benefit For A State

Spring Creek

If your state is one with Legal Casinos, do you feel it is a benefit
to your state's economy?
Nebraska is voting to allow Casino style gambling on Nov. 2nd.
All the surrounding states already have it, so those that favor it say
"Keep the money at home".
Those against say that it brings more "Social" costs and problems, than
benefits.
I enjoy a "friendly" game of Poker, enjoy going to Vegas to gamble
there once and a while; along with visiting the "Border" states now
and then to play the games.
BUT............Is it worth it to have it "At Home"?????????????


NRA Benefactor Life Member
Browning Collectors Association

idsman75

Only if it brings in out-of-state dollars IMHO. Otherwise you are just getting people to spend money they would have spent elsewhere. If they spend MORE than they would have spent elsewhere then they probably fall into the category of "social ills" where they are spending money they should save. That's my take on things.

beantownshootah

Though I don't like it, I see no point in the State banning gambling. That just hands the business to the mob and prevents the gov't from collecting tax revenues. It's distasteful, but might as well control and allow it.

I do have issue with the state SPONSORING gambling, but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Sorry. . .didn't answer the question.

There is legalized gambling on Indian reservations in MA. Does it help the state economy? I have no idea.

Beeramid

Not sure, all the indian reservations have em down here. To tell you the truth I'm not sure where all that cash goes.

You are knuckle-dragging ape with a gun.

drobs

Have a bunch of them here, from what I can tell turns the surrounding neighborhood in to a snothole.


Regards,

n/a

Good for the Native Americans, but not the state,, Anyway gambling casinos are for poor people with a Pipe Dream.. same as the Lottery,, they say its for the schools, and the schools are going down the drain every day.. Again designed for the poor peoople so the rich can get richer.. The Lottery super here in florida gets a 250,000 dollar a year salary.. and ad companies get paid millions.. Its all a sucker bet...[:0]

mark christian

Once upon a time the only legal gamnbling here in California was on track betting for horse racing. 20+/- years ago the state began its lottery and the horse tracks tried to fight it and lost. Later a number of cities began to alow so called "card clubs" where people can place wagers of certain types of card games where the house does not have a stake in the out come of the game (you can't play games like blackjack because you'd be betting against the house). The horse racing folks fought the card clubs and lost and the greater Los Angeles area has several of these clubs. Some years back the Indians began to open casinos on their local reservations and the horse racing guys AND the card club folks fought them but lost and now there are quite a few Indian casinos in the Southern California area and no one seems to have a problem with it...except the horse tracks and card clubs. I enjoy a trip to Las Vegas (usually for the SHOT Show) and gamble a little while I am there but I have no real interest in simply going somewhere for the sole purpose of gambling. As long as things are well regulated I see no problems with having legalized gaming in areas which are zoned to allow it but there are only so many dollars that local people are willing to risk betting and if they build too many of these clubs/casinos in California some will be out of business pretty quickly and Las Vegas is just a 5 hour drive away.

"Nothing can ever be made 'idiot proof' because idiots are simply too clever"!
Mark T. Christian

pickenup

We had a couple of towns fairly close to us that were turning into ghost towns. The little summer tourism traffic was not enough to keep these towns alive. The voted to allow gambling "within the city limits" of these two towns. Keep in mind that these were small mountain towns, where the tallest building was probably only 2 stories tall. It now looks like a "mini" strip out of Vegas. They have tore down anything that was worth anything, when it comes to historical value, and blasted the side of the mountain to make room to build these monster casinos.

As for the surrounding area reaping the benefits of the taxes collected. The county where this happened, as far as the property taxes, went from one of the MOST expensive in the state to live, to one of the LEAST. They built a huge addition onto the high school, a new library, a new courthouse and county center.

The infrastructure HAD to be improved, so the first thing was electrical, then came a new sewer treatment plant. I know some of the state highway guys, and they were told that those roads leading to the casinos, had PRIORITY and were to be kept clear, to the point of letting the surrounding roads go. I am sure the state is getting their cut of the taxes, but I don't know what they are doing with it. In the immediate surrounding area, the improvement SURE shows.

Oh, and when they first allowed this (see above) I said it had to be within the city limits? Just noticed last time I went to the range, they MOVED the city limits. Because of the limited space with which to build. I told everyone that they would do this, in time. They did.

As soon as they started this, the ten cent pay telephones they had there, went the way of the dodo bird. [:(]

The gene pool needs chlorine.

Ray B

In Washington the vices are allocated to the tribes. The get to sell liquor and cigarettes and have casinos. It really hasn't helped the tribes in a proportion to the volumn of money going through the door. About 15 years ago when the laws went into effect, some of the larger tribes built casinos and were doing reasonably well. The smaller tribes wanted to get involved, but were not financially able to make the venture, So what happened was they were fronted piles of money by out of state sources, primarily from Nevada and New Jersey. The financial arrangements that I'm familiar with involve a small tribe that built a large Las Vegas style casino. It has dancing girls and other LV style entertainment. This has resulted in drawing a substantial amount of business away from the smaller pure gambling casinos, to the extent that the older casinos are breaking even, at best. The deal the large casino/small tribe has with the creditor is that the casino is licensed to the tribe, but is managed by the creditor's company. The gross revenue is split 50-50, but the wages to the non-management personnel are paid from the tribes portion. Additionally there is a mortgage payment from the tribes portion. Basically the money comes into the casino, half goes directly to the creditor for it's "management services", of the other half the tribe pays the tribal employees, generally the dealers, wait staff, cooks & clerks, and the remainder goes to the creditor as mortgage payment. One elder told me that if business was very good, the building would have enough of the loan paid down by 2030, that they'd then be able to allot a portion to the social programs that were the reason for the casino in hte first place. Looks to me like the Nevada Gamblers are the ones making the money here- so justg how does that help either the tribe or the State of Washington?

Red223

Pennsylvania recently legalized gambling and to get the people to agree with it they said you could claim 'homestead' protection on your home and no longer have to pay property tax as the State income from gambling would be sufficient and property taxes would no longer be needed.


The suckers bought it and everyone is still paying property tax.

concealedG36

We've got horse racing, State lottery, special-event bingo and "Vegas night" stuff, 3 real casinos in Detroit and a bunch more Indian casinos in Michigan. As far as I can tell the only people winning are the casinos (and the Indian tribes). The schools in the urban areas are terrible, the roads still stink and my taxes sure as heck haven't gone down (in fact, our Democrat governor wants to tax us for 4 years and have us pay in 3; she's also selling State land to help balance the budget).

IMHO, casinos belong in Las Vegas.

G36


Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT CriminalsThe 2nd Amendment; America's Original Homeland Security

Alpine

When I started in law enforcement the Indian reservations in southern California were populated mostly with people on welfare or other assistance. When the casinos went in the tribe members were building tents as fast as they could be put in, and they paid cash for everything after the first one. Now the tents are coming down and being replaced with high rise buildings, still being paid for with cash. the members of the two tribes with casinos that I know of are receiving $13,000.00 a month each (and that amount is two years out of date). Also new members of the tribe are given at birth a trust fund for college in the amount of $150,000.00

All this money and yet social repercussions of gambling are being paid for by the local taxpayers. Drunk drivers, Gamblers Anonymous, the bankruptcies, are not all figured into the equation of what it costs to have the casinos operating.

Unless the tribes are willing to pay for these repercussions, pay taxes, and willing to pay for improvements the traffic to their casinos require, I don't see that a state is benefiting from the gambling.


Just my 2 cents.


Your mileage may vary.



"If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."

fishermanben

It's the easiest way for a state to get the welfare money back.

Ben

I root for the and anyone who is playing the