Posted on 06/05/2011 6:23:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher of jobs and tax revenues. The opponents brace for an epidemic of bankruptcies, crime, divorce and suicide. Which side to believe? Neither.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is now considering whether to sign or amend a measure authorizing five new casinos, including one in Chicago, and slot machines at racetracks as well as Chicago airports. The capacity of gambling establishments in Illinois would more than triple.
The motive for this sudden interest is economic. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel expects up to 10,000 new jobs from opening a casino that will be owned by the city. Legislators eagerly anticipate a windfall of tax payments and licensing fees, which they can use to ease the state's painful budget crunch.
But all that glitters is not gold. More gambling opportunities may not mean more gambling proceeds, since the public appetite is on the wane. Illinois casinos have seen their revenue fall by a third over the past three years. Increasing the number of outlets could mean just dividing the take into smaller piles.
Is Chicago likely to reap big economic gains? Not in this lifetime. A new casino may attract more visitors and create new jobs serving drinks and dealing cards. But money lost at the blackjack table can't be spent on other types of recreation and entertainment. Jobs that spring up in gambling-related businesses may be lost in other sectors.
Casinos have been useful in reviving depressed areas, according to the 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission Report. That may have little relevance to Chicago, which is not exactly a declining Rust Belt relic.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Why does the movie It’s A Wonderful Life come to mind, the way the town was WITHOUT George Bailey?
Casinos are the publicly-funded sports stadiums of today. All bang, no buck.
Raum sez there’ll be 10,000 new jobs, what he doesn’t say is, 8,000 of them will be in law enforcement and the department of corrections. Quinn needs an excuse to demand another huge tax increase.
Thanks Kaslin.
The Government has taken the Gambling away from the Mafia. When does the Government get into the business where the real money is and open up Whorehouses?
They could put Wiener in charge of the heterosexual ones and Barney Frank in Charge of the Homo ones.
This is true in Connecticut.
The two big casinos that opened in Connecticut created a bunch of low paying jobs. They did not create many careers. Mainly jobs for retirees. I think it pays about as much as Walmart
OTOH - there are few bankrupcies. I personally know of only one who lost their house from gambling. And when I've gone there and played a table game, there's occasionally some poor guy who hasn't got a clue how to play blackjack, bets $500 at a time and won't hit on a 14 against a delaer showing a ten card, and quickly loses several thousand dollars. But its rare. One sign that its rare is that the Connecticut casinos are doing poorly since Obama took office...people just don't have spare money to gamble with and most people don't gamble with the grocery money.
I don’t believe that the government should promote gambling like this. If private individuals want to open up a casino and gamble, that should be their choice. But having state owned casinos and lotteries is simply an expansion of government.
Yay! You are correct. Alas, you live in the wrong country. Or, at least the wrong century.
The odds alwyas favor the house...and the government.
I’m currently working as a blackjack dealer in a casino. On the subject of pay, It really depends where you work. Since I live in a rural area, I can make some really good money there esp. when I work on the weekend, because it’s tip-based pay. Most of the jobs though, are held by people who haveno education past high school, and most of the people who work there are not retirees. But that’s just in my area.
We had a guy who was a regular, and he would spend a good deal of money, but one time he ended up losing his mortgage payment. The management of the casino made that payment for him.
I’ve only been dealing for bout a year or so, but usually the people who don’t know how to play only make the minimum bet, and they usually do pretty well, it’s just the rest of the table who gets messed up.
And on the subject of Illinois, our casino is just across the river from Illinois, but there is a state law in IL that you are not allowed to smoke in indoors. Missouri has no such law, so we get people driving in from all over Illinois because they want to smoke, drink and gamble all at the same time.
Casinos are a negative-sum form of entertainment.
On average, you lose.
The same economics holds for gambling.
Add a casino in one place, and it will take it away somewhere else AND depress other forms of entertainment that are less negative-sum.
The winners? Why, the House of course. Whoever is putting coins into Rahm’s palm to get this done is getting good ROI for paying off the corrupt Chicago mayor.
Obamanomics!
I am pretty certain the downturn in Illinois gambling revenue coincides with the passage of the No Smoking in Casino and Bar law. Illinois politicians are the dumbest and most corrupt in the nation. Hey, We’re Number One!!!
The money will leave the city, going to the owners. And because people who go to a casino to gamble don't leave the casino to go eat or see a movie, no one else will benefit from their presence.
The fact is and has always been: gambling is a regressive tax on the poor.
I agree. This would make the government own an entertainment business, which competes against other entertainment businesses. Since the Government makes the rules, it’s hard to see how this would be fair...and when you have a corrupt city like Chicago own gambling houses, what could go wrong?
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