The House always and I mean always wins...
However I have no problem with people gifting the gullible out of their money.
Posted on 09/09/2014 7:20:39 AM PDT by Kaslin
I am no psychiatrist, but I have heard gambling isn’t too easy to treat.
The morons here in NYS are pinning their hopes on it for an upstate recovery instead of allowing Fracking that could support tens of thousands of middle class jobs.
Mustn’t let anyone get off public assistance now.
Gov. Cue ball is crowing about creating 500K new jobs during his tenure. Yeah, all ObamaCare part time positions that were once full time.
The House always and I mean always wins...
However I have no problem with people gifting the gullible out of their money.
Remember NYC OTB...? they lost money running a bookmaking operation..
We have to get back to the fundamentals in rebuilding the economy. Not thinking that a flash in the pan such as legalized gambling will solve an area”s economic problems, or fill the state’s tax coffers.
That’s a happy kitty photo.
[ We have to get back to the fundamentals in rebuilding the economy. Not thinking that a flash in the pan such as legalized gambling will solve an area”s economic problems, or fill the state’s tax coffers. ]
Gambling is a lot like a government job, hundreds of people hired to move money from one place to another while each station gets their tiny bit of a share... However it produces nothing of real value, just like the government...
I have sometimes thought it strange how things changed. At one time gambling was considered immoral and socially destructive, which is why most forms of it were illegal in many places. There was Vegas, of course, once known, probably with some justification considering that it was originally founded and run by the mob, as Sin City.
And then we started to have legalized lotteries of various sorts. And then, in my area, the government decided to cash in on gambling by permitting VLTs (video lotto terminals - multi-game video slot machines) to go into all sorts of locations - bars, restaurants, convenience stores, pizza joints, pool halls, pretty much anywhere you wanted. Eventually they decided that this provided unwanted access to the machines to minors so they restricted them to bars.
Anyway, I just find it interesting how for a lot time gambling was generally viewed as a disreputable (or shameful) and immoral activity, and then the government decided it needed the money and legalized, and suddenly it was if there was nothing wrong with gambling at all, since the government approved.
Yeah. Now they need to legalize whorehouses and drugs to generate the tax revenue to replace that lost from gambling. < / sarcasm >
Gambling creates nothing. It’s a black hole that sucks money out of communities. Think of it as reverse wealth redistribution.
Even the jobs it creates becomes problematic as it introduces graft, extortion and bribery to get some of those lucrative dealer or cocktail waitress jobs.
Gambling is a sign of a society that has too much wealth wasting away. They shouldn’t ban it, but it should be highly regulated with limited accessibility. A casino should always be a planned destination, not an impulse stop because you’ve driven by one.
Detroit has several casinos.
Porkus Christi threw $261 million of taxpayers funds into it because it was never going to open otherwise. It should be considered a criminal offense in my mind.
Gambling is a luxury. When things are tough, many stop it. Some won’t, but that isn’t where the majority of the money is made.
Here on the Mississippi between Iowa and Illinois, we have four casinos. They are losing money, and that is with huge tax breaks. Long term, at least two of them are going under, because every town of any size has at least one casino.
Back in the day when Vegas and Atlantic City was all there was for real casino gambling they could be assured of tourist dollars. Today it is everywhere and nobody has to go to AC or Vegas to gamble.
If your customers aren’t from out of state, your just moving revenue from sales tax on something else to lottery/casino, not generating more overall.
There is a large group on FR that want to do just that.
However, like CO is now experiencing, it is hard to make people pay more for a legal drug than they were when it was illegal. Tax revenues are up, but not at near the rate they expected.
I know a family where the oldest brother just pled guilty to stealing 250.000 from his mother, all for gambling. He’s broke awaiting sentencing, ripped up the family, some want him in jail, the mother doesn’t.
Gambling turned them all upside down
I know of one substantial payoff from gambling, but it’s an odd one.
The tribes in Arizona were allowed to build casinos on their lands. But as with other businesses, location is everything, and some were very profitable, and others failed.
But then something unusual happened. The tribes with successful casinos agreed to a wealth sharing agreement with the other tribes. And this was backed with both tribal and statewide referendum.
Each tribe had its own spending priorities with their portion of the money. For example, one tribe, with terrible, endemic diabetes, built and runs a state-of-the-art diabetes clinic.
But another tribe was the real oddity. A very small tribe of only a few hundred people, it decided to commit all its funding to education. Along with the money, was a complete, cultural dedication to education. So any tribal member can get free schooling, from primary through a PhD if they can and want. And everybody in the tribe is expected to help them get educated in any way they can. To encourage them to push themselves, to tutor them, to laud them for their success, and to hold teachers in high esteem.
The brilliance of this scheme cannot be underestimated. And while they are not a rich people, they will likely get enormous dividends from this philosophy.
Before, they were likely on the path to extinction. But now the future is a wide open door to them. It will be very interesting to see what they have become in a hundred years.
BTTT
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