Posted on 07/09/2019 1:15:30 PM PDT by C19fan
Music blared as more than a thousand people formed a long, giddy line along the front of a once-abandoned Kmart. Two racehorses paced the parking lot. A man in fox-hunting garb blew a bugle call. Cheers went up, dignitaries urged the crowd to “have some fun!” and the new Rosie’s Gaming Emporium threw open its doors.
“Virginia is boring,” Annie Randolph, 64, a retired health-care worker shouted as she jockeyed to get inside. She had arrived more than two hours early — thrilled, she said, to finally have fun gambling without traveling to Maryland or Las Vegas.
“Keeps me from doing housework!” she said with a laugh.
No, the General Assembly hasn’t made it legal to build casinos in Virginia. That debate will rage in next year’s legislative session.
But casino-style gambling has come to the Old Dominion anyway, in the form of electronic games that function almost exactly like slot machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We were made all sorts of promises when casinos were legalized in Pennsylvania. So much money would come rolling in that property taxes could be slashed substantially.
Yeah. THAT didn’t happen.
And there is an increase in crime that comes with gaming. A friend of a friend who had MS was robbed of $43,000 by a home health aide who had become addicted to casino gaming.
Don’t to it, Virginia.
Rat solution to unemployment & improving the local economy!
Vice!
I am not a prude and not against gambling per se. People can throw their money away on whatever they see fit. However I do find it irritating that politicians find that playing to people’s weaknesses is superior to doing something like getting government out of the economy!
Later in Virginia you will be seeing a proliferation of Gamblers Anonymous signs on bill boards along side roadways offering their services. The average Virginian will wonder how that became a problem?
I just can't get that mad at my money.
Colonial Downs never seems to be open, but I guess it is.
The tract of land on which the track is built was obtained through an eminent domain suit brought by the State of Virginia against an African American/Native American family (Tero Johnson) that had owned the majority of the land since 1863
Government sanctioned vice benefits nobody but government and other criminal enterprises.
I was up in State Line Nevada in the mid 70s..I won some money on the tables and proceeded to spend it on a slot machine attached to a Porche. I was cranking away and this beautiful lady came over and propositioned me for some activities up in the room. She was stunningly beautiful and I was 23 and... you know what I’m talkin about. So I dug out my last quarter turned to slot and thought “if this us supposed to happen...” pulled the lever... bust. Turned to the love goddess and looked her dead in the eye and said... “sorry honey, I’m fresh out” she winked kinda giggled and.walked away ensuring I got a good look at the departing moving violation.
And that was the last time I gambled, come to think of it... that was the last time I was in a casino.
In Missouri, the hook was “riverboat gambling”. Gambling would only occur while the boats were sailing on the river, thus bringing back the ‘romance’ of the river boats and limiting the time gamblers could gamble.
After a few years the owners of the riverboats complained they couldn’t operate when the rivers were at flood state (virtually every year) and there was the issue of safety. So the casinos were allowed to permanently dock their boats.
Flooding still cut into business and ‘boats’ limited floor space for tables and machines, so casinos could be built on dry land—as long as river water was near it. The small casino in Cape Girardeau is on the dry side of the flood wall, but if you’re on the second floor, you can in fact see the Mississippi.
Of course, the democrats are all in favor of gambling, but then, love to claim it hurts the poor and minorities the most.
Gambling and drugs. Next prostitution. Gov’t looks for mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money.
Good maybe VA will build some decent highway
rest areas /s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.