Third World Desperation Time
Cash-hungry states add casinos, lure same gamblers
"Cash-starved states are increasingly being drawn to the lure of easy money in casinos - a bet that could ultimately hurt taxpayers if the supply of slot machines, poker tables and racetracks outpaces customers' demand.
The race to open new casinos is most frenzied in the Northeast, which has 41 casinos and 20 more planned.
Atlantic City, N.J., which for decades held a gambling monopoly outside Nevada, was already reeling from a beatdown inflicted by neighboring competitors. Now New York, which has casinos run by Indian tribes, just approved slot machines for its Aqueduct racetrack. Pennsylvania has added table games like poker and blackjack to its nine slot-machine casinos - and five new casinos are planned.
Massachusetts lawmakers approved plans July 31 for the state's first gambling halls, threatening two tribal casinos in Connecticut and two racetrack casinos in Rhode Island.
Maine's voters decide a casino issue in November; Ohio just approved casinos; Maryland opens its first - along the busy Interstate 95 corridor - this fall; and Delaware's three racetrack casinos started offering table games this summer.
The consequences of saturation could be debilitating: Companies are investing billions of dollars chasing ever-smaller slices of the gambling pie while governments are banking on additional tax revenue from new casinos and gamblers' winnings to help run operations and ward off tax hikes.
States talk openly of poaching gamblers from their neighboring states and view keeping their own residents' money within state borders as something akin to a religious duty.
"Government wants free money, and the casino industry for years has represented and provided free money to them," said Tom Carver, executive director of New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. "The attraction is, `Our citizens are going to a casino somewhere else and spending money that should stay within our borders, so we need our own casinos.' But people are running out of disposable income."
"Cash-starved states are increasingly being drawn to the lure of easy money in casinos - a bet that could ultimately hurt taxpayers if the supply of slot machines, poker tables and racetracks outpaces customers' demand.
The race to open new casinos is most frenzied in the Northeast, which has 41 casinos and 20 more planned.
Atlantic City, N.J., which for decades held a gambling monopoly outside Nevada, was already reeling from a beatdown inflicted by neighboring competitors. Now New York, which has casinos run by Indian tribes, just approved slot machines for its Aqueduct racetrack. Pennsylvania has added table games like poker and blackjack to its nine slot-machine casinos - and five new casinos are planned.
Massachusetts lawmakers approved plans July 31 for the state's first gambling halls, threatening two tribal casinos in Connecticut and two racetrack casinos in Rhode Island.
Maine's voters decide a casino issue in November; Ohio just approved casinos; Maryland opens its first - along the busy Interstate 95 corridor - this fall; and Delaware's three racetrack casinos started offering table games this summer.
The consequences of saturation could be debilitating: Companies are investing billions of dollars chasing ever-smaller slices of the gambling pie while governments are banking on additional tax revenue from new casinos and gamblers' winnings to help run operations and ward off tax hikes.
States talk openly of poaching gamblers from their neighboring states and view keeping their own residents' money within state borders as something akin to a religious duty.
"Government wants free money, and the casino industry for years has represented and provided free money to them," said Tom Carver, executive director of New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. "The attraction is, `Our citizens are going to a casino somewhere else and spending money that should stay within our borders, so we need our own casinos.' But people are running out of disposable income."
posted by nolocontendere at 6:30 AM
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