Posted on 07/12/2014 1:53:37 PM PDT by dynachrome
Too bad they tore down the Blenheim. I use to love looking at it. I saw the last of the Diving horses on the pier in ‘76. Gambling is everywhere, nobody needs to travel far to find it... Haven’t been to a Casino in decades. Even when I’d make the occasional trip I didn’t like them. $60 limit for me back then...I work too hard to throw it away.
“I think the idea of putting all the illegal alien invaders in these closing casinos/hotels and have the LIBs volunteer to take care of them Problem solved. You could even have the corpulent gov of NJ, crispi creme, hug them.”
NJ is basically a “sanctuary state” already because of the taxpayer exodus; I think they’d re-settle them up here in the north of the state, though. The cost of living has driven out a lot of people; lots of vacant businesses and foreclosed homes. The biggest disgrace in Atlantic City was the number of employees bused from Philly; the gibsmedats in AC didn’t work in the casinos.
“There is a new casino five miles away from my home right Downtown. Opened a couple years ago. Never been there.”
At this point they are more of a sign of desperation than prosperity; they are looking at locations in northern NJ and right across the border in NY as a means of rehabilitating economically depressed areas, but in this stagnant economy it would do nothing. In good times the benefits are questionable enough...
I haven’t been in a casino in years; I used to go occasionally before I had kids and a mortgage.
Thanks.
They really make an effort to steer you clear of the ghetto, but you still see the decay.
I think the unreported inflation is easting people’s income up as well; I can;t wait to see higher healthcare costs in the news, but I’m not holding my breath. The end (nationalized healthcare) justifies the misinformation campaign (the means).
The “revitalization” campaign worked in the sense that in a state like NJ, all municipal services are paid out of local property taxes, and the casinos simply pick up the tab for everything. I remember seeing a high school in Atlantic City that was state-of-the-art; the fact that nobody was learning anything was completely secondary - the public employees were getting paid. When the state ran out of money a few years ago to make up local shortfalls, Newark NJ laid off 160 cops; they didn’t have a sugar daddy to pay their bills (and are already bleeding businesses).
At this point the welfare hives in NJ need funding; even if they opened massive opium dens or slave marketplaces, it would be tolerated as long as they paid property taxes.
“Now, here in the Buffalo area alone we have 4, not counting the one across the border in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The gambling pie can only be sliced up so thin.”
I remember the first time I saw the one in Niagara Falls Ontario, and being shocked at how many gibsmedats were in there. I told my wife at the time that there would very shortly be casinos on the American side; there was no way NY state (or the federal government, for that matter) would tolerate so much public assistance being spent within sight of the US. The casino ruined Niagara Falls Ontario; it changed the character of a place that had tourism nearly year-round, and killed many local small businesses. I was there last year, and didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as past trips; the exchange rate didn’t help, either.
In Illinois they’re so greedy they designed it so that bar owners could only “rent” a machine from a shady group. The cut is 35% of the losses to the bar owner, 5% to the locality, 25% to the state of Illinois and 35% to the “machine operators owners group”. Each machine only costs about 10 - 20K and each one is expected to net about that a year. Some payback, eh?
Funny thing is they got so greedy that a lot of towns are looking at the paltry 5% and saying “no” to gambling. The insiders were shocked.
We were just there this week (not the Trump Plaza, but AC)
I expected AC to be sleazy, but it was beyond the pale sleazy. And I say that as one who has lived in the DC/Baltimore area for the last 15 years and who isn't easily scared or put off by sleaze.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that AC, in general, has any area in the DC metro (including the Anacostia area) beat. It even has any area in Baltimore beat (including Lexington/Seton or Poppelton)
But that's not why I feel compelled to post. The reason why I feel obliged to post is because of the danged taxes. We were looking at staying at a resort hotel in the city (disregarding everything else), but the taxes added up to almost 50% of the room charge. I know that municipalities charge extra for tourists, but it's only 15-25% added to the room. 50%?????
I balked at that (and we found a really nice place in Egg Harbor Township (who only, btw, charged a 10% room tax).
Anyway, we arrived in town and were utterly disgusted. Our expectations were not high, but they bottomed even our low expecations. Even the casinos were not well kept.
So I ask: if tourists have to pay a 50% room tax, what the hell does it go for? It sure doesn't go to keep the tourist areas decent and inviting.
And, please keep in mind that this isn't a slam against NJ as a whole. Cape May seemed great to me (in fact, I full well intend to come back) -- beats the hell out of Ocean City Maryland / Rehobeth Beach Deleware. The Long Island Beach area, to include Surf City, seemed pretty nice as well. But AC? Don't ever plan on setting foot in those city limits again. Ever.
The Northeast Corridor is now saturated with casinos and it now all about cannibalizing to stay alive. Delaware allowed casinos a few years back and it has done so poorly the state actually had to bailout out the casinos. The opening up of slots in NY and the PA casinos have absolutely destroyed Atlantic City. Now Maryland is opening up casinos with one opening in Baltimore in August. MD gave the ok for a casino right at National Harbor off the Capital Beltway on the MD side of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to open in 2016. That probably spell the death of the DE and WV casinos. The only major part the country without casinos is the coast from Virginia down to Georgia. There is only one casino in those states on Cherokee Nation land on the eastern side of the Smoky Mountains; I was just there as it is a nice place but food was way overpriced.
The decline of AC is one of the reasons Christie is fighting tooth and nail in the courts to allow sports betting in AC. Currently one can do sports bets in Nevada with Delaware allowing parley cards. Christie is probably right that sports betting is the Hail Mary that might save AC.
That's a rhetorical question, right?
The casinos never plowed any of the money back into the city, so they remained monied islands in a crackhead dump.
They could have fixed the city up, drove up real estate prices, raised the standard of living all around - it would have been good for long term business.
But they didn't and now that people have options, nobody wants to visit their ghetto anymore.
Probably a fair amount of $$$ was skimmed off by the mafia and the gov’t.
AC is a dump and Seaside Heights is seedy guidoville, but the rest is gorgeous.
Of course, I was including them. The casinos are the mafia and in NJ, the mafia is an arm of the government.
“mafia is an arm of the government.’
indeed
Much of New Jersey is beautiful; it is the terrible cities, stocked with government-subsidized Democrats, that weigh down the State and its politics. The Northwest part of the State is beautiful (Sussex, Hunterdon, Warren, Morris and northern Passaic counties) as are Monmouth, Ocean, Cape May and Salem counties in middle NJ and the south (coincidentally, all are Republican strongholds). The problems are Newark, Camden, Trenton, Jersey City, etc.
I hear that bandied about a lot but not necessary true. For many (who aren't addicted), it's just another form of entertainment.
For example, you can take a few hundred dollars and blow it on a day at Six Flags, standing in line in the hot sun for a cold drink and an overpriced hamburger or waiting an hour or so for a 90-second ride on a roller coaster. And it costs you something like $54.99 just to walk through the gates!
Some may say that is stupidity but I guess some people actually enjoy the experience of a day at Six Flags.
Not for me however. I'd rather take the couple hundred to a casino and try my luck at the blackjack tables or a slot machine or two. If I lose it all, I'm no worse off than the guy at Six Flags except I have no sunburn and my feet aren't tired from standing in lines all day. Sometimes, I might even walk out of there with more money than I walked in with like I did at Empire Casino in Yonkers a few days back. Dropped $100 in slot machines and hit a $275 jackpot. So last night I take the wife to dinner and paid with a crisp $100 bill. Still have $75 left from that night to do something else with.
Donald Trump has declared bankruptcy at least four times.
Maybe #5 will turn the trick.
I wonder how much the Union added to burden.
I remember being there about the same time as a kid. My brother and I wandered around the Blenheim (I remember the musty, salty smell of the place) and stepped out onto a balcony under one of those iconic domes. It was magical. Faded and thread-bare but magical. And I beat a chicken at tic-tac-toe!
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