Democrat Maura Healey backs casino law repeal

By Matt Murphy
State House News Service
Posted Apr. 15, 2014 @ 6:51 pm
Updated at 6:53 PM



BOSTON — Democrat Maura Healey, a candidate for attorney general, came out in opposition to expanded gambling on Monday, throwing her support behind a proposed ballot question that would make casino gambling illegal in Massachusetts.

Healey, a former assistant attorney general under Attorney General Martha Coakley, also broke with her former boss in arguing the proposed ballot question that would, in essence, repeal the 2011 expanded gaming law should be allowed to proceed to the ballot. Coakley ruled it ineligible, but proponents are fighting her decision in court.

“I’m opposed to expanded casino gaming and I support the current effort to repeal of the gaming law. I do not believe a modern economy that is focused on creating opportunities for every person can be built on gambling,” Healey wrote on the liberal Democrat blog Blue Mass Group. “The few communities that have voted in favor of casinos are going through tough economic times and many see casinos as a much-needed boost. But evidence from across the country tells a different story. Casinos don’t lay a foundation for diverse economies, they take over.”

Healey is running for the Democratic nomination for attorney general against former state Sen. Warren Tolman. A spokesman for Tolman could not immediately be reached for comment, but Tolman has said previously he does not support repealing the casino law.

Healey said the experience of communities around the country where casinos have been located is that local restaurants and entertainment venues lose patrons, personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures jump and the cost for police and other services skyrocket.

Speaking to some areas beyond the reach of the attorney general’s office, she advocated instead for infrastructure development, investments in education and job training, a more “progressive tax structure,” an increase in the minimum wage and “unionizing our workforce” to help create jobs and prepare residents for the modern economy.

If casinos are allowed to be built, Healey said she would hire the “best lawyers” for a newly formed Gaming Division in the Attorney General’s office that the gaming industry should pay for. She also said she would create a team of investigators to be stationed full-time in casinos to monitor for abusive or predatory practices.

Coakley in September declined to certify the ballot proposal to prohibit casinos based on her determination that contract rights are considered property and may not be “taken” by an initiative petition. Her office contends that applicants for casino licenses have an “implied contractual right” and an expectation that the licensing process will play out as set forth in the expanded gaming law.

The organizers behind the ballot question argue that prospective casino developers entered the licensing process knowing that the law legalizing expanded gambling in Massachusetts could be changed at any time. The Supreme Judicial Court is expected to hear arguments in the case the first week in May.

Page 2 of 2 - “The opinion stated that it is improper to shut down the licensing process now that several casino operators have applied. But voters made a decision to shut down the greyhound tracks with a ballot question and that was an industry that had been running for years,” Healey wrote in her blog post. “I am not concerned about the well-being of casino operators. I am concerned about the well-being of the residents of Massachusetts. The final decision is up to the courts, but I believe on a matter of this magnitude, the voters should have a chance to be heard.”



http://taunton.wickedlocal.com/article/20140415/NEWS/140417396

The Next Bursting Bubble!

The letter to the editor below has been ignored. The pertinent Boston Globe article is below.
Bubbles don't last!

When Paul McMorrow writes That more and more casinos can only work "if gambling erodes ever-greater portions of the real, productive economy", (11-6-12), he is issuing a warning which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should grab our attention. The craze which is leading states to build more and more casinos is the sign of another bubble similar to the recent housing bubble which resulted in a major recession with millions losing their losses through foreclosures and many more millions losing their jobs.

 

The problem with bubbles is that they are never recognized until too late. There have been numerous bubbles from the famous South Sea Bubble to the recent one in housing. Every bubble benefits some people. They have to get in early and get out before it is too late. Casino gambling took off in the early nineties and has been growing ever since. The people who start investing in the bubble just before it is going to burst are the great losers. People are divided as to whether casino gambling is or is not a good way for the individual states to get additional revenue. But the gambling bubble is very close to bursting in the very near future. Even if it was a good idea in 1990, it is only a losing proposition right now.

Look at Connecticut. Both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are on the verge of bankruptcy. Next thing we know the state will be asked to advance subsidies to them so as to preserve, yes, "jobs, jobs, jobs." In Rhode Island both Twin River and Newport Grand have had to, ask for assistance from the state. Wake up, Massachusetts! So far we don't have any casinos even though some are being planned. It is not too late for our General Court to repeal the law authorizing casino gambling. It is time, even past time, for our state to get out of our casino craze.

Peter B. Denison  Somerset, Ma

 

 

R.I. and Mass. are in a gambling arms race

By Paul McMorrow          

November 06, 2012

The biggest race in Rhode Island isn’t being fought between a Democrat and a Republican. Instead, this year’s ballot pits the state of Rhode Island against Massachusetts in a casino gambling arms race.
 
Rhode Island voters decide Tuesday whether to allow the state’s two slot machine parlors to install table games. Whether the state’s gambling parlors win or lose, the ballot question won’t end the arms race. As states pile into the ultra-competitive casino gambling market, they’re finding that the only way to deliver on the promise of huge piles of money and easy jobs is in amping up their gambling operations and raiding someone else’s casino business — an act that invites reprisals in the form of yet more expanded gambling. Massachusetts lawmakers didn’t end the gambling debate when they authorized the construction of three casinos last year; they put down a marker that they’re going to have defend, and revisit, ad nauseum.

Voters in Rhode Island defeated a similar casino-legalization referendum in 2006, but the landscape looks far different this time around. The current bid to convert Twin River in Lincoln and the Newport Grand in Newport into casinos enjoys the support of Governor Lincoln Chafee, and the ballot question has been polling well. Rhode Island voters have turned because they suddenly have a lot to lose, thanks to the casino law that passed on Beacon Hill last year.

The Massachusetts law allows for the construction of three resort casinos, as well as a stand-alone slot machine parlor. So now Rhode Island’s two slot parlors, which siphon money away from Connecticut’s two tribal casinos, are staring down the prospect of a new tribal casino across the border in Taunton, or full-scale commercial casinos in Milford, New Bedford, or Middleborough, on top of a likely slot facility in Plainville or Raynham.

As evidenced by Twin River’s 2009 bankruptcy filing, Rhode Island’s small facilities were already smaller players, compared with Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. A surge in competition from Massachusetts could gut their business, or wipe them out altogether. A report filed with the Rhode Island Department of Revenue earlier this year estimated that Twin River and Newport Grand stood to lose anywhere between $77 million and $152 million per year to Massachusetts, draining between $45 million and $91 million from the state budget.

Rhode Island voters suddenly have a lot to lose.

In any normal business, strong competitors would drive weak ones out of business. That’s capitalism.

Legalized gambling isn’t much of a capitalist enterprise, though: When competition gets tough, casino firms put their money to work, bending the law to tilt the market in their favor. In Rhode Island, this means spending millions on a campaign to convert Twin River and the Newport Grand to full-scale casinos, rather than concede the state’s lucrative-enough cut of casino proceeds to Massachusetts and Connecticut.

If Rhode Island’s casino push is successful, it will mean that New England will soon be home to eight full-blown casinos. (One opened in Maine in July.) Last year, that figure stood at two. Casinos are multiplying because states are responding in kind to each other’s embrace of gambling. Slots parlors beget more slots parlors, and new casinos spur the construction of more casinos. There’s no sign of this dynamic stopping.

Cross-border gambling reprisals are becoming common across the country. Pennsylvania legalized casinos and swiped a huge piece of Atlantic City’s gambling business, so Atlantic City worked feverishly to implement sports betting. New York grew jealous of the money flowing into Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, so the state chased a huge urban casino in Queens. West Virginia found itself in the same place Rhode Island is now in: It had a good slot parlor business hit the skids when neighboring Maryland opened slot parlors, so it converted its struggling slot parlors to full-blown casinos. Of course, Maryland didn’t stand pat in the face of West Virginia’s escalation; the state is now pushing a ballot question to dramatically expand gambling and let it, too, open full casinos.
States have sold gambling as a jobs stimulus, and now they’re locked in a race to corner a limited market. In Connecticut, casinos have responded to new competition by expanding their operations.

But even though the state has thousands more slot machines than it did a decade ago, the machines are handling less money. The calculus only works if gambling erodes ever-greater portions of the real, productive economy. Otherwise, the arms race ends with ever-expanding state gambling operations grasping for crumbs.

Paul McMorrow is an associate editor at CommonWealth magazine. His column appears regularly in the Globe.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/11/06/and-mass-are-gambling-arms-race/KumuVXsdjgnWG1Z4FUVHKJ/story.html

Foreclosure Roundup: Miami Jai-Alai after less than 9 months

Gambling on casino ends in foreclosure lawsuit for Miami Jai-Alai

Foreclosure Roundup

South Florida Business Journal by Brian Bandell, Senior Reporter

Date: Friday, September 21, 2012

 

Brian Bandell

Senior Reporter- South Florida Business Journal

Less than nine months after opening its casino, Miami Jai-Alai has been hit with a foreclosure lawsuit by the lenders that financed its construction.

ABC Funding, the manager of the loan for several funds, filed a foreclosure lawsuit on Sept. 5 against Florida Gaming Centers and Florida Gaming Corp., the owners of the Jai-Alai facility at 3500 N.W. 37^th Ave. in Miami. The building is 193,899 square feet on 7 acres, including 1,500 surface parking spaces.

It also filed a foreclosure lawsuit in St. Lucie County against the same companies over the Fort Pierce Jai-Alai property at 1750 South Kings Highway because it was secured by the same mortgage.
A representative of Florida Gaming declined comment.

Shares of Florida Gaming traded at a 52-week low of 50 cents on Friday after opening at $1. They closed trading at 80 cents. The 52-week high was $5.37 on Sept. 28, 2011.

Florida Gaming obtained the $87 million mortgage to build its 40,000-square-foot casino in April 2011 through ABC Funding, which included participation from Boston-based Summit Partners, JPMorgan Chase Bank (NYSE: JPM), Locust Street Funding and several funds organized by Canyon Capital Advisors.

The loan turned some heads, as Florida Gaming had a market capitalization of only $19.4 million and just $16.6 million in assets at the time it secured the financing, which carried an interest rate ranging from 15.75 percent to 16.50 percent. Freedom Holding, the majority owner of Florida Gaming, pledged all its stock in the company as additional collateral.

It appears that roll of the dice didn’t work out.

The casino at Miami Jai-Alai opened in January with 1,035 Class III slot machines, an expanded poker room, electronic blackjack, roulette, dominoes, new restaurants and a live-event venue. Florida Gaming posted revenue of $33.1 million in the first six months of 2012, but it lost $6.8 million due to higher expenses. It also had more than a dozen construction liens filed against it by the contractors who helped build the casino.

(Page 2 of 4)

As of June 30, Florida Gaming had $84 million in assets against $100.6 million in liabilities.
Its Securities and Exchange Commission filing for its second quarter results admitted that Florida Gaming missed a principal payment on its loan in July and had $84.1 million outstanding.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Marissa Kelly, who represents ABC Funding in the lawsuit, couldn’t be reached for comment.


http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/print-edition/2012/09/21/gambling-on-casino-ends-in-foreclosure.html


http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2012/09/14/miami-jai-alai-and-casino-in-84m.html

 

 

Mandel: Gambling on the courts

By Michele Mandel ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Thursday, August 09, 2012

Ontario compulsive gamblers are getting one more shot at rolling the dice for the big jackpot they could never win on their own.
The province’s highest court has decided to allow problem gamblers led by Peter Dennis to appeal two lower court decisions that refused to certify their $3.5-billion class-action lawsuit against the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission.
“We survived to fight another day,” says their lawyer, Jerome Morse.
On behalf of more than 11,000 addicts, they allege the OLG allowed them to continue betting away millions between 1999 and 2005 even after they signed “self-exclusion” contracts asking to be barred from Ontario casinos for their own good.
“We say that we identified ourselves as problem gamblers and we were in need of being kept out of your gambling venues and yet you did virtually nothing,” their lawyer explains. “You took photos that went into books that gathered dust. How do you keep track of 11,000 self-excluded gamblers when you have millions coming in? No one can argue these were your best efforts.”
Since 2011, the OLG now has facial recognition software at each site to scan the face of everyone who enters against a database of more than 16,500 problem gamblers who have voluntarily banned themselves. But this lawsuit predates that era when there was no central database and staff were somehow expected to memorize thousands of pictures and spot self-excluders.
At the heart of the proposed class action is Dennis, 52, who lost his job, his house and nearly his family. According to his statement of claim, the Markham account manager became addicted to playing the slots at Woodbine Racetrack and gambled away $350,000 between 2000 and 2004. After an 11-week binge, the depressed and anxious father of two admitted he had a problem and signed a self-exclusion contract believing it would keep him away from his addiction.
But Dennis claims he was stopped only once in the following three years.
He would go on to blow through another $200,000 and in April 2005, the bank foreclosed on his home. He was fired that year from a data management firm because he owed money to a client and in September 2007, gambling cost him his second home. He was bankrupt and his family so fractured that one child tried to commit suicide and the other fell far behind in school.
But who’s to blame — the addict or the pusher?
The proposed class action will argue that the OLG owes a duty of care to compulsive gamblers — like a bar that has to stop serving a patron who’s had too much to drink, the gaming venue had a responsibility to step in and actually enforce the self-exclusion contract.
Should the OLG be expected to be their babysitter? “The self-exclusion program is not a policing program,” argues spokesman Rui Brum. “The onus is on the self-excluder to keep themselves out of OLG sites.”
So far, Dennis and his bid for a class action lawsuit has crapped out twice.
In 2010, Ontario Superior Court Justice Maurice Cullity ruled their case was more suited to individual lawsuits and refused to certify it as a class action. To that point, nine individual lawsuits against the OLG had been settled with an average pay out of $167,000 and another four lawsuits were pending.
Last year, the Divisional Court reached the same conclusion and wouldn’t allow a class action to go ahead, although one of the three judges disagreed.
Now this decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal Thursday will allow them one last chance to argue their case for certification. While the court gave no reasons as to why they will hear the appeal, the gamblers’ lawyer believes that it certainly satisfies the requirement that it be of wider public interest, especially now with OLG’s-plan to increase provincial gambling revenues by a staggering 75%. “The need for responsible gaming and self-exclusion will be very important,” he warns.
As for Dennis, he’s working again and piecing his life back together. He’s sworn off gambling save for one last bet — that he can bring his class-action lawsuit to trial and hold the province responsible for his downfall.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/09/mandel-gambling-on-the-courts

Leave It In Vegas!

Florida Politics

Anti gambling ad hits the airwaves

By Kathleen Haughney July 23, 2012

TALLAHASSEE -- Anti gambling group "No Casinos," which fought against destination casino resorts last spring is back, again airing an ad that tries to tie problems in Las Vegas to Florida.

“Unfortunately, a foreign casino conglomerate and Las Vegas interests aim to plunder our state,” said No Casinos President, John Sowinski. “Genting and big Vegas operators would profit at Florida’s great expense, and leave in their wake the familiar gambling side effects of addiction, economic calamity, and increased crime.”

Genting is expected to try a two-pronged approach at getting a casino resort approved, by lobbying both the Legislature and voters to make it a reality. The group has financed a committee to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot allowing destination casinos in the state.

No Casinos launched several ads online and on air against the destination casino concept last spring.

Casinos .... also bring the devastating effects of gambling addiction

Casinos bring jobs, but they also bring the devastating effects of gambling addiction
Published: Friday, June 22, 2012

By Other VoicesThe Plain Dealer

The Horseshoe Casino is expected to bring revenue and jobs to Cleveland, but what about the negative effects?

With the renovations in Tower City and the opening of new businesses downtown, jobs are being created for the younger generation and the casino is bringing more tourists to the city. With that said, do you think that the increased jobs and revenue will outweigh the debt that most people will put themselves in with the opening of the new casino?

Cleveland will soon transform into Detroit, with its high rates of foreclosure and crime. The number of individuals on government assistance will increase.

Besides its "volunteer exclusion" program, the casino needs to give gamblers tips on ways to gamble without losing all of their money or going into debt. For example, do not take any type of credit or debit card with you into the casino; give yourself a time limit on how long you are going to gamble; or even tell yourself once you win a specific amount you will leave. The more the casino assists gamblers with their addiction, the less the likelihood of Cleveland becoming like Detroit.

Marcya Betts, Shaker Heights

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2012/06/casinos_bring_jobs_but_they_al.html

Gambling Addiction Plagues Thousands in Valley

Agency: Gambling Addiction Plagues Thousands in Valley



This is part 3 of a three-part series:

Placing a bet is risky business and for some, the temptation is too much and they go too far.

"We estimate probably in Northeast Ohio, there's maybe 15,000 to 20,000 people who have a gambling problem in some way, shape or form," said Lynn Burkey, an addictions counselor.

Burkey works with about 15 clients at a time at Meridian Community Care. He said gambling addiction often goes under the radar until it's almost too late.

"A lot of the spouses have said, you know, I didn't know we were in any financial trouble until we got a foreclosure notice on our house," Burkey said.

The numbers are staggering.

"The average debt is a couple hundred thousand dollars right now. Maybe eight to 10 credit cards run to the limit," Burkey said. "It becomes an obsession of the mind and it becomes your main focus."

Some of the warning signs of gambling addiction are gambling with increasing amounts of money in order to feel excitement, gambling as a way to escape problems or relieve guilt, anxiety or depression, lying to loved ones about the extent of gambling and relying on others to provide money to alleviate a desperate financial situation caused by gambling.

Burkey said often, an addict's family will seek help first.

Treatment involves multiple steps. The first is taking away access to money. A recovery program follows and family members are strongly encouraged to enlist into the program too.

"You've got a 70 to 80 percent chance that you'll be successful in the long term. Can't say forever, because forever is a long time," Burkey said.

While critics of casinos said it isn't enough, recently passed legislation requires 2 percent of the tax on casinos' gross revenue to go into the State Problem Casino Gambling and Addictions Fund. The state's Casino Commission even has a ban list, which individuals can volunteer to sign up for.

Burkey said gambling addiction left untreated can be costly to governments because of increased foreclosures, divorces and even domestic violence issues. It also can be deadly.


"There's a very high rate of suicide with gamblers. In fact, they've looked and where casinos have come in, the suicide rate around the casino areas have doubled," he said.


http://www.wytv.com/content/news/local/story/Agency-Gambling-Addiction-Plagues-Thousands-in/yAJQ4h4l2U-Uq9yoRtM24Q.cspx

Ohio: There won't be enough money....

For every $50 revenue, cost $300....

Racino wrong answer for Plainville problem

Racino wrong answer for Plainville problem

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

To the editor: My husband and I have been residents of Plainville for the last 36 years, and we've worked hard to maintain our home, pay our bills, and raise two children. I am deeply concerned about the proposed slot parlor at Plainridge Racecourse.

I haven't always agreed with the selectmen over the years on issues like the landfill, asphalt plant, and sewer project. But I've heard them describe Plainville as a town with rural charm that's a great place to raise a family, and they seemed to want to preserve this ideal. So I hope they will take a very close look at the far-reaching effects that a slot parlor would have on our town.

Slot parlors approach every player as a potential addict, enticing them to play "to extinction," the predatory gambling industry's term for "broke." Many people can't walk away from the enticements of slot machines before they've devastated their finances, family, and life. Casinos and slot parlors are one huge transfer of money from the pockets of working families and seniors into the pockets of multimillionaires. Sadly, our government supports this failed public policy as a misguided jobs scheme. But predatory gambling creates far more addicts than jobs. Even our local clergy opposes gambling, knowing the negative impact on families and the community.

A racino is not the answer to this town's financial problems. It will bring short-term revenue and long term problems, with an increase in: crime, traffic, loss of property value, bankruptcy, addiction, inadequate housing, DUIs, suicide, domestic violence, and foreclosures. The end of Plainville as we know it.

Frankly speaking, I plan to hold on to my money and pass it on to my children, not some millionaire who doesn't share a vested interest in my family, property, neighborhood, and town. Please consider the impact of predatory gambling before it becomes a way of life that we'll never be able to change.

Patricia Hoyceanyls, Plainville

50 Mile Casino Radius Map

Gambling expansion does not simply recapture Massachusetts gamblers who out of state to gamble. It creates more gamblers locally.

Proximity to predatory gambling increases addiction within a 50 mile radius by double. The map below illustrates the areas of the state located within 50 miles of proposed casino locations in East Boston, Middleboro and Palmer.

The costs of managing local increases in addicted and problem gamblers, impacts to municipalities, air and water pollution are additional reasons why USS Mass recommends in the strongest terms, that the Legislature and the Governor perform a comprehensive, balanced, data-driven, cost-benefit analysis of predatory gambling before licensing slots or casinos in the Commonwealth.

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2012/05/16/opinion/11486305.txt

Nevada has the lowest high school graduation rate in the country

To those who promote Las Vegas as the standard to be emulated, beyond the facades of excess, does anyone consider the statistics?


Nevada has the lowest high school graduation rate in the country.


But now a multi-million dollar federal grant is helping one district turn its schools around. Host Michel Martin speaks with a principal who spent last Saturday knocking on the doors of students who dropped out, encouraging them to come back to school.

MARTIN: Neddy Alvarez, I'd like to start with you. Only 43 percent of the students who started your school in 2006 actually graduated with their class in 2010, according to the district's figures. Why do you think that is?

ALVAREZ: There's many reasons that, you know, they drop out. There are reasons - you know, poverty, pregnancy, students not being engaged. They don't see a value, no connection. There's not a value there for them. Some of them have lost of credits in the 9th and 10th grade they lose their credits. They haven't passed their proficiency exams. Then they don't see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. So, they think that, you know, there's no reason for them to return, so they drop out.


TAKAHASHI: Well, there are many different factors as, you know, Neddy just said. There are, you know, factors of poverty. Las Vegas of course was really wracked hard by this recession. It has the highest unemployment rate in the country. You know, recent numbers came out today for the national level, but we were at least five percentage points higher. You know, Las Vegas is the foreclosure and bankruptcy rate capital in the nation.

And so, there are a lot of different factors here that lead to homelessness among students. You know, that give rise to the things such as crime and drugs and alcohol abuse. And a lot of those things, of course, impact family life. You know, families working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. And so, you've got a lot of students here who might be working to help support their families.

Listen HERE

SO WHY DO NEW YORKERS LIKE BEING LIED TO AND SCAMMED?

SO WHY DO NEW YORKERS LIKE BEING LIED TO AND SCAMMED?

All of this serves to make me wonder why a whopping 64% of state voters – and 65% of city voters - like having smoke blown up their ***** by Young Andy Cuomo ...

Is it because it tickles?

Or do they just relish being scammed ....

And so ...

So there is a glimpse

So there is a glimpse of the future that Young Andy Cuomo, Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos have in store for us here in New York State if this cock-a-mamie plan to restore casino gambling to New York goes through ....

And it is also a glimpse at all the pure BULL**** Young Andy is shoveling at us when he tells us how good casino gambling is going to be for NYS ....

If that were so, then Las Vegas should never have felt the recession ....

In fact, however, it led the entire nation until last October with 22 months in a row as the city with the highest foreclosure rate, and as of Nov. 29, 2011, according to S&P/Case-Shiller, Las Vegas registered new lows in housing prices ...

And so ...

And what about Las Vegas

And what about Las Vegas today, then?

If casino gambling is all that Young Andy Cuomo and Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos say it is, why, Las Vegas must be BOOMING!

So let's take a look:

"Federal report: Home flipping drove housing bubble"

By CRISTINA SILVA AP

In Nevada, which has the nation's highest foreclosure rate, the housing market remains weak, with home prices continuing to fall in the Las Vegas area, where most of the state lives.

Home prices were down 7.3 percent in November compared to a year before, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

That means the median price dropped from $134,900 to $125,000 in one year.

And this: "Homes lost to

"Homes lost to foreclosure up 6 pct from last year"

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer
Las Vegas continued to be the city with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S., with one in every 71 homes receiving a foreclosure notice in July — more than five times the national average.

"Unemployment rises

"Unemployment rises in 75 pct of metro areas"

CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

Among cities with more than 1 million residents, Las Vegas reported the highest jobless rate, at 14.5 percent.

That was up from 14.1 percent in May.

IF casino gambling was such a panacea for the deficit-plagued state desperately in need of new revenue and job creation, then why are we reading news like this concerning that MECCA for gamblers, Las Vegas:

"No bounce in home prices"

By ALAN ZIBEL Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Thought the housing crisis was over?

Not quite.

Despite four years of falling prices and recent signs that they were finally bottoming out, homes are expected to lose still more value in many metro areas over the next year.

Parts of the country already pummeled by the housing crisis, like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, will be hit hardest.

YOUNG ANDYVILLE NEWS:

The other thing on my mind right now is Young Andy Cuomo's plan to bring casino gambling into NYS ....

As stated earlier, Young Andy has one of his "advocacy groups", acting as if they are "champions of democracy", out with a glitzy radio commecial on behalf of Young Andy's efforts to bring in a gambling concern to NYS from MALAYSIA .....

What Young Andy is telling us, through this "advocacy group" fronting for him, is that by bringing in this group from MALAYSIA (where in the USA is MALAYSIA, pray tell?) to operate these casinos Young Andy is so hot to have in NYS, that somehow, that is going to "restore lost revenue" to NYS ....

And what a full load of hog crap that is .....

That group from MALAYSIA is going to act as a great big HOOVER vacumn cleaner, sucking money out of NYS, and out of the United States, and we will be left holding the bag .....

That money sucked out of NYS and over to MALAYSIA by this gambling operation won't make it back to here in our lifetimes ...

Those dudes in MALAYSIA will be getting rich and fat and happy, while we head towards third-world status over here ....

But the slickster politician Young Andy Cuomo thinks we are too stupid to realize that ....

And a Quinnipiac University survey, by Quinnipiac pollster Maurice "Mickey" Carroll, says that a whopping 64% of state voters – and 65% of city voters - are ....

Which makes them putty in Young Andy's hands ....

As the rich dudes running these casinos say, "there are millions of suckers born in America every day" ....

'Gaming' bills potentially devastating

John Sowinski: 'Gaming' bills potentially devastating to existing businesses; don't let Florida gamble on its future

One issue two views: casino gambling What do you think of proposals for destination resorts? They're devastating: Casinos will cannibalize existing state businesses
John Sowinski, a native of Fort Pierce, is President of NoCasinos.org, Orlando.

You can almost set your clock by it.

Whenever we are in a down economy, casino gambling promoters come out with a new plan to expand legalized gambling in Florida. This time they're calling it "destination casinos" and they want our legislators to pass a bill that would legalize full-scale casino gambling.

A Malaysian gambling conglomerate has hired 25 lobbyists to push the idea of building some of the world's biggest casinos here in Florida. The casino they have planned alone is so big it could house four to six of the largest casinos in Las Vegas.

There will be a lot of discussion on this subject during legislative session that began this week, so it is important for Floridians to know a few things that will provide context to what they will be reading and hearing.

First, when casino interests say "gaming," they really mean "gambling." Gaming is what our kids do with their Wii or Xbox. Gambling is when you wager money.

Second, when they say it will create jobs and tax revenue, what they aren't telling you is that most of these jobs and taxes are at the expense of jobs and tax revenues that already exist in our economy. That's because gambling is a predatory industry, and in already-developed business environments, it primarily cannibalizes economic activity from existing businesses. That's why 40 percent of Atlantic City's restaurants closed and one-third of their retail establishments went out of business when casinos opened there.

And while gambling promoters claim mega-casinos will create jobs, current economic data tells another story. If high-stakes casino gambling is such a good job creator, then why does Nevada lead America in unemployment, foreclosures, personal bankruptcy, violent crime and divorce?

This track record is why Florida's leading business organizations — the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, the Florida Attractions Association and the Florida Retail Federation — all oppose this expansion of gambling.

Third, gambling promoters will not tell you the proposed mega-casinos also will rack up social costs and cost of crime that will be borne by taxpayers. Counseling and treatment for compulsive gamblers and public support for the families they leave destitute, the cost of regulation, law enforcement, crime, insurance claims — the list goes on and on. According to the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, 35 percent of addicted Florida gamblers admit to committing crimes to support their addiction or pay gambling debts. Mega-casinos mean more addicted gamblers, and more addicts means more crime.

This reality is why Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Florida Sheriffs Association have come out in opposition to the expansion of gambling in Florida as well.

For all of these reasons and more, expanding gambling is the wrong social and economic policy for Florida. Casino interests say new gambling will be "strictly limited." Our legislators should ask them this: If it is such a great thing, why not have it everywhere?

The reality is this: from the broken promise of the lottery until today — every time gambling has been expanded in Florida, that expansion has snowballed into exponentially more gambling than was originally promised. In the history of gambling policy in Florida, there is absolutely no exception to this statement.

Gambling is a cancer on our society. It continues to spread, unless somebody draws the line and says "no more." It is time to draw the line, and stop the expansion of gambling in Florida.

Sin City: Has Razzle, Lacks Dazzle

Sin City: Has Razzle, Lacks Dazzle
Written by Bill Toland

... so says the PG's TV critic, Rob Owen, who paid a visit to post-housing-sector-meltdown Las Vegas:

"The most obvious sign of the economic downturn has to be the storied and now shuttered Sahara Casino and Resort, which closed in May 2011 and is now surrounded by a chain-link fence. The Sahara is at the north end of The Strip -- the portion of Las Vegas Boulevard that's taken the brunt of the economic decline. Developers demolished blocks of old Rat Pack-era casinos to make way for newer, cooler resorts that never came to fruition. Now several dusty, empty blocks separate Circus Circus -- a hotel and casino that has the largest, permanent big top in the world -- from any real development." (PG)

Yeah, that's gotta hurt property values. No such problem on Pittsburgh's North Shore, where Rivers Casino learns of its "new" property assessment (should those new values ever take effect):

"One that wasn't lucky in the reassessment was the Rivers Casino. It is still fighting in court to lower the $199.5 million assessment the county placed on the property in 2010.But that didn't stop the county from raising it again this time around, to $242 million." (PG)

Casinos, casinos everywhere

Miami wants a casino (or at least, the casino companies want Miami to want a casino): "Two of the world's largest casino operators promise major boosts to tourism if they can open resorts in downtown Miami. But how much help does the vacation industry need? Hotels, restaurants and other tourism businesses in Miami-Dade now employ more people than they did before the recession. Among the country's top hotel markets, only Nashville and San Francisco saw a bigger boost in revenue from hotel rooms than in Miami-Dade, where the measure is up 14 percent this year." (Miami Herald)

... Massachusetts wants a casino: " The competition for the sole resort casino license in western Massachusetts intensified Thursday, as MGM Resorts International announced a plan to purchase 150 acres of land in the small town of Brimfield. The Las Vegas casino company said it would seek to develop a 'world-class resort' on the site, some 65 miles from Boston near the Massachusetts Turnpike." (AP, via Business Week)

They're all world-class resort casinos, aren't they? Wasn't Rivers Casino supposed to be a world-class resort? I bet they said the same thing about Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon when it opened in Vegas.

... Tulsa, Okla., does NOT want a casino: "An array of elected officials, school leaders and ministers publicly announced their opposition to a planned Indian casino at a rally that nearly filled the 1,300-seat sanctuary of a local church." (Tulsa World)

Wynn, Lose or Draw
Who wins the fight for Wynn?:

"A battle that erupted this week between Steve Wynn and a longtime business partner reveals turmoil within the casino mogul's global empire that could add to its challenges in the explosive Asian casino market. On Wednesday, the business partner, Kazuo Okada, a director and the biggest shareholder of Wynn Resorts Ltd., alleged in a lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court that he was blocked by Mr. Wynn from seeing the company's financial records after he contested the company's donation of $135 million to a university in Macau." (Wall Street Journal)

Odds and ends
Does Toronto want a casino? (Increased social problems! Bankruptcies! Gambling addictions! Etc., etc.) ... The Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, is having three job fairs this month ... of course, if you're hired, your start date is still up in the air: "The opening of casinos in Cleveland and Toledo will be delayed for several weeks, and likely much longer, because the required background checks on the gaming operators and vendors are well behind schedule."

Desperation in Atlantic City

ACH casino counting on new locally focused marketing strategy to survive in Atlantic City
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI, Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com

ATLANTIC CITY - Ghostly quiet - that's how the ACH casino floor appeared at 12:30 p.m. on a recent Wednesday. Row after row of slot machines were empty.

Michael Frawley admitted that the stillness made him nervous. Casinos, after all, are not libraries. The gaming floor is supposed to be boisterous and raucous, filled with gamblers.

But Frawley, ACH's chief operating officer, also viewed the hushed surroundings as an opportunity - a clean palette of sorts - to try to revitalize Atlantic City's second-smallest casino.

"We're going to create a niche in this market that's never been explored," he said.

The troubled gaming hall is being rebranded as a "locals" casino in a last-ditch attempt to save it in Atlantic City's shaky market. ACH, formerly known as the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, will also go through yet another name change to fit its new identity. The new name will be revealed sometime soon.

ACH, in pursuing the locals strategy, will concentrate on attracting gamblers who live within a 35-mile radius of Atlantic City, a very tight customer base. But far more than geography is involved. Frawley explained that the casino will also adopt a new image as a "value-oriented" property.

"Price point is a deciding factor in where you're going to go," he said of customers. "This is a place where you don't come on a special occasion. You come here because it's Thursday. It's just a better deal."

ACH will slash restaurant prices by 50 percent. Penny slot machines will dominate the casino floor. The number of table games will be reduced from 86 to 50 and those that remain will feature low-limit stakes, Frawley said.

In December, New Jersey casino regulators approved gambling chips worth just 25 and 50 cents apiece for ACH. Chips of $1 or higher are commonly used at the Atlantic City casinos. Frawley said minimum table game bets will be as low as $2 or $3, with the 25- and 50-cent chips giving players different wagering options.

Slots machines, though, will really define the casino's low-budget strategy. Plans call for removing 920 old slot machines and replacing them with 600 new ones that feature the latest technology. Most of the new slots will be penny machines. When the overhaul is finished, ACH will have a total of 1,500 slot machines compared with 1,850 now.

"Our goal is to have the best slots product in Atlantic City," Frawley said. "We are a slots-centric property. We consider slots to be our core product."

ACH's rebranding follows a tumultuous year in which it lost the rights to use the iconic Hilton name and narrowly avoided a foreclosure sale by lenders. Hilton Hotels & Resorts ended its franchise agreement with the casino for the Hilton brand, but did not divulge the reason for doing so.

ACH has nearly completed removing all vestiges of the Hilton name and corporate logo from the property. Next comes a rebranding for a casino that has had a series of name changes associated with its revolving door of ownership over the years. It originally opened as the luxurious Golden Nugget in 1980 under Las Vegas gaming mogul Steve Wynn's ownership.

Hilton's ownership began in 1996, followed by other deals that ended with the California-based private investment firm Colony Capital LLC taking charge of the casino in April 2005. Colony kept the Hilton name through a marketing partnership with the hotel chain.

Under Colony, the then-Hilton defaulted on its mortgage in July 2009, prompting lenders to seek court permission to foreclose on the property. The litigation was put on hold early in 2011 while attempts were made to sell the casino. With no buyers emerging, Colony reached an agreement with lenders in November to continue as the casino's owner while pumping in $24.3 million in new cash. The deal also commits Colony to keeping ACH open at least through Oct. 31.

Frawley made no guarantees about the casino beyond that date. He acknowledged the possibility that the casino could close down. When the final figures are in for 2011, he estimated that ACH will lose between $19 million and $20 million for the year. Those losses underscore just how difficult it will be to revive the casino in a gaming market mired in a five-year revenue slump.

"To say it's not going to be easy is an understatement," Frawley said. "I'm optimistic, but I'm not deluded to think that it's going to be an easy road by any means."

Michael Pollock, a casino analyst and managing director of the Linwood-based Spectrum Gaming Group, noted that ACH will face additional pressure from the grand opening this spring of the $2.4 billion Revel casino. Revel is expected to steal business from not only the weak Atlantic City properties such as ACH, but even the powerhouse Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

"There's always that risk," Pollock said of the possibility of ACH closing. "There's always that risk in any year, particularly when a new property is going to come on line and from Day One that it will be a market leader."

Pollock praised ACH and Frawley for overhauling the casino's marketing strategy, but added that competitors will be quick to copy the "locals" theme to woo customers to their place, provided it works.

"If you can properly identify the niche, there is every reason to expect that competitors will try to emulate that strategy if it proves to be profitable," he said.

At stake are ACH's nearly 2,000 jobs. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission endorsed the deal between Colony and its lenders to preserve those jobs. The day after the commission gave its regulatory approval in November, ACH announced 150 job cuts.

ACH must reduce its labor costs if it is to remain open, Frawley stressed. He said that managers have taken an undisclosed pay cut and that concessions are being sought from nonunion employees.

"On the union side, we're looking for everyone to help as much as they can," Frawley said, declining to discuss possible pay cuts for union workers.

Customers agree that ACH needs changes, but the idea of a low-budget casino scares some and offends others. They fear the casino will lose its cozy atmosphere.

"I don't approve of it," said Barbara Hart, of Waretown, Ocean County. "I think it will attract a lower element of people."

Murray and Gloria Harper, of Monroe Township, Middlesex County, made similar comments. Murray, 87, and Gloria, 77, are retired teachers who started coming to ACH, during its Hilton days, for education conventions.

"What is the class of the people coming off the street?" Gloria Harper asked of the new customers ACH will court. "But at the same time, there could be some pluses. Maybe it will open it up to more people."

The Harpers visited ACH on a Wednesday in December to celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. They were astonished to learn that all of the casino's restaurants were closed that day.

"We came to celebrate our anniversary and not one damn restaurant is open," Murray Harper complained.

In 2010, a $20 million renovation project added four new restaurants and gave the gaming floor a partial facelift. Frawley said about $14 million to $15 million in fresh cash from Colony Capital will be used for further upgrades to the casino floor. The remainder of the money gets tucked away for operating expenses.

In addition to new slot machines, there will be new carpeting, new lighting, new seating and more space for customers to move around in. The casino's opulent chandeliers and barrel-vaulted mirrored ceilings trimmed in gold-hued glass will stay, though.

Also staying put at ACH are Colony Capital and its partner Nicholas L. Ribis, who serves as the casino's chief executive officer. Colony and Ribis once were the owners of Resorts Casino Hotel, before lenders took over that property in 2009 when it defaulted on its mortgage. The lenders sold Resorts in December 2010 for $31.5 million to Atlantic City gaming executive Dennis Gomes and New York real estate magnate Morris Bailey.

"Nick always liked the property even, frankly, more than he liked Resorts," Ribis' spokesman, Alan Marcus, said of ACH. "He fought very hard to keep control of the property."

Ribis, a veteran Atlantic City gaming executive, came up with the concept of having a locals-oriented casino about 20 years ago, Marcus maintained.

Now that strategy will be tested as ACH fights for survival.

"Nick has always said that a gambler from Atlantic City is just as valuable as a gambler from Detroit," Marcus said.

Casino resorts? Braman says don’t buy the hype

Casino resorts? Braman says don’t buy the hype
BY NORMAN BRAMAN

I believe “destination resort casinos” are an assault on the quality of life of our community and must be well-scrutinized and defeated lest we lose the advantages our community has struggled to offer its citizens — and its tourists. One only need examine the promises that were made to other cities regarding casinos and gambling, and compare the results to those promises.

There is a reason they are called “destination” casinos: they maintain control of their patrons by virtue of “comps,” discounts and other incentives for their numerous on-site, casino-owned operations, including restaurants, shops and entertainment venues. They are loathe to see patrons leave their facilities even to have a meal. Thus, in Atlantic City most retail establishments, including restaurants, no longer are in business.

Jack Lowell, who wrote exuberantly in a Nov. 10 column in support for the Genting Group’s Singapore operations, leaves many questions unanswered. He has refused to identify the South Floridians who accompanied him on that Singapore junket and who paid for it.

On the subject of disclosures, shouldn’t Genting, which bought The Miami Herald and Omni properties, as well as the Las Vegas casino operators who want to open casinos here, disclose the names of the lobbyists they have hired, the amount of money they have pumped into campaign coffers of our legislators and what PACs these companies have established or contributed to in an effort to sway public opinion?

It is not in Miami’s best interest to become another Las Vegas, with an unemployment rate at 14 percent and a leader in housing foreclosures. Compare those facts with Lowell’s statements about Singapore’s so-called “economic boost,” and contrast it with Miami-Dade County, where, without big-time gambling, hotel occupancy is booming.

Moreover, supporters of casinos ignore the huge costs we will have to bear for infrastructure improvements and ongoing public safety. Miami does not need to become a magnet for the type of undesirable individuals who are drawn to a gambling community, where crimes such as murder, prostitution, robberies and drugs become more prevalent. According to the Detroit Free Press, several communities near casinos reported more child neglect and spousal abuse.

We have made great strides over the years. We have become a destination for regional and hemispheric bank headquarters and financial institutions from all over the world and are on the cusp of establishing a viable bioscience presence. These types of businesses, which create quality positions paying significant salaries, are non-existent in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

When casino supporters speak about jobs, they fail to state that the average salary of these “thousands of jobs” (many of which would be transferred to Miami from their other casinos) would average $33,000 a year, as Genting’s President Colin Au told me. That is hardly enough to buy a home or educate one’s children. This is not to denigrate our hard-working residents or any job. I know how tough times can create difficulties for our people. I merely seek to compare businesses and the potential futures they offer. Research has shown that more local businesses and jobs are lost to a community as a result of destination resort casinos than are created. [cannibalization]


Miami benefits from world class culture. Art Basel Miami Beach, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, is universally recognized as the premiere art fair in the United States and will bring to our community 40,000 visitors from all over the world. The new Miami Art Museum now is under construction and the Museum of Contemporary Art has announced a major addition. Our Miami Science Museum will be built soon. Miami also has gained greatly from all the events at its world-renowned Adrienne Arsht Center, including becoming the winter home of the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the five great orchestras in the world.

And who can forget the wonderful addition of the Frank Gehry New World Center, which recently opened in Miami Beach to heralded acclaim or the Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony Orchestra, both of which are recognized worldwide. None of our civic and cultural achievements is compatible with a Las Vegas/Atlantic City/ Singapore gambling mecca. The Genting Group’s Singapore casino is located on an island and there are major restrictions on residents from entering the casino. Monte Carlo has become a refuge for tax evaders and a haven for white-collar criminals.

Lowell and others protest South Florida’s Indian gaming, store-front “games of skills” enterprises and pari-mutuels as being unregulated and frequented only by locals. Their cure? Bring in big-time gambling for well-heeled tourists! This is a non-sequitur. Why isn’t enforcement of existing laws the cure for any illegal local gambling, if it exists?

If we accept the reasoning that three casinos will generate $6 billion of investment plus 30,000 jobs, why not have 10 casinos to generate $18 billion of investment plus 90,000 jobs? Why stop at three? What are we afraid of? If it is the destruction of our quality of life, as I suggest, then shouldn’t we prohibit big-time gaming casinos entirely? Our state legislators should not risk destroying our community.

I fear that passage of legislation sponsored by Rep. Erik Fresen and Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff not only will transpose Miami into another Las Vegas and our state into another Nevada. It will create a malignancy that will attack our wonderful, culturally diverse community that we have worked hard to create. Sure, we have a way to go to strengthen and protect it. We are working on that. However, we must guard against any supposed quick fix.

Norman Braman is a businessman and civic leader.

Top 10 Things Gambling Promoters Are Thankful For

No Casinos offers its suggestions for why casino promoters are thankful
We are a push over for cleverness, especially when it's wrapped in holiday twist. So we offer you this from John Sowinski, head of the Disney-backed No Casinos:

With Thanksgiving upon us, we’re asking the question:
What are the Top 10 things casino promoters are thankful for this year?

NUMBER 10: Genting is thankful that the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms was not at last weeks’ Committee meeting when Genting President Colin Au etched his name in Florida history by becoming the first person to use the word “bull$#!*” , not once, but twice in formal testimony.


NUMBER 9: The rest of the casino lobbying gang is thankful that he didn’t drop the F-bomb while he was at it.

NUMBER 8: Las Vegas Sands lobbyists are thankful that they haven’t yet had to explain to Floridians why the company is the object of an ongoing federal investigation, and why, exactly, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department are trying to find out if the Sands violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

NUMBER 7: Wynn lobbyists are thankful that nobody from their company is currently using obscenities in front of legislative committees or under investigation by the feds.

NUMBER 6: Genting is thankful that land is cheap, and the dollar is low so that even if the legislature rejects casinos, they still got a good deal on some prime real estate.

NUMBER 5: Bill sponsors are thankful that most Floridians are cordial people with enough self-control to not laugh out loud when they claim that Florida has to expand gambling in order to control it.

NUMBER 4: All gambling promoters are happy that memories are short, so very few people remember that last time there was an effort to legalize mega-casinos in Florida, the sitting Speaker of the Florida House wound up on the payroll of a casino company and went to federal prison for, among other things, failing to pay taxes on the cool $250,000 in casino money he was paid.

NUMBER 3: Casino kingpins are thankful that nobody’s bothered to tally the social costs tied to expanding gambling in Florida—including the cost of regulation, crime, business destruction, counseling and treatment of addicted gamblers, support for destitute families, lost productivity, etc, etc, etc.—because once those numbers come out, it will be clear that taxpayers will be picking up the tab when casinos cannibalize existing businesses and drain millions out of the Sunshine State’s economy.

NUMBER 2: Gambling interests are thankful that Florida’s economy is really bad right now, so that they can try to pass off mega-casinos as a boon for our economy, even though Nevada leads America in the unemployment rate (30% higher than Florida’s), foreclosure rate (400% that of Florida’s) personal bankruptcy rate, auto theft rate, assault rate, suicide rate, and on, and on, and on.

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING Casino promoters are thankful for: having a chance to prove PT Barnum right on his famous words: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Posted by Mary Ellen Klas

Bankrupt Casinos blight Las Vegas Strip

Steve Wynn, whose personal greed knows no bounds, is getting mighty testy about those skeletal casino buildings in Las Vegas, in spite of statistics that don't bode well for the Gambling Industry.

Las Vegas has the worst bankruptcy and foreclosure rates in the United States, so casino owners are edgy about the recession still clouding business in the city.



Las Vegas contractors have sued for unpaid work in a city with the highest unemployment in the U.S. (Officially, it’s 15 per cent; unofficially, it’s likely higher than 20 per cent, according to vocational experts.)


In Massachusetts, Beacon Hill leadership is waving the magic wand of Slot Barns and promising wondrous job creation to the delusional tune of 15,000 new jobs with 3 small Slot Barns.

These were Las Vegas' projections for luxury facilities:
Echelon = 10,000 jobs = Cost = $4.8 BILLION
Fontainbleau = 6,000 jobs = Cost = $2.9 BILLION (68 Stories)


‘See-through’ casinos blight Las Vegas Strip
Kathleen Kenna
Special to the Star


LAS VEGAS—Prepare for a battle of some of America’s richest men over desert ruins.

Billionaire Steve Wynn is so angry about unfinished “see-through” buildings on the famous Strip (Las Vegas Blvd.) that he’s preparing to sue.

But the casino mogul’s research so far shows there might be little he can do about two stalled projects, worth an estimated $8 billion, in the worst economy this city has suffered.

Las Vegas regulations do not punish anyone for leaving billions of dollars of unfinished business on The Strip, Wynn complained in an interview.

“The planning commission never had a rule about completion or removal—it’s extraordinary,” he said.

“There is no ordinance that says once you start a building, you have to finish it. We are all now taking action ... it can just stay there forever. It sure is a pain in the butt.”

Las Vegas has the worst bankruptcy and foreclosure rates in the United States, so casino owners are edgy about the recession still clouding business in the city.

They are also voicing private concerns about the addition of 3,000 rooms to an already-battered Strip, when the Cosmopolitan opens Dec. 15. That $3.9-billion project is the only major casino project opening in Las Vegas this year.

Wynn has been credited with spearheading the revival of the Vegas Strip in the 1990s with such projects as Bellagio, The Mirage and Treasure Island. He

is putting the finishing touches on a $200-million reno of Wynn, only five years after the luxury casino-hotel resort named for him opened.

Guests in $1,000-plus rooms in this ultra-makeover get spectacular views of the Mojave desert, some of the Strip’s neon, and mountains surrounding Las Vegas.

They also stare straight at the “see-through” hulk of Echelon, a $4.8-billion project stalled for two years, and the $2.9-billion Fontainebleau, apparently about 70-per-cent complete.

The low-level Echelon, owned by Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Inc., looks as though it’s rotting.

Echelon was touted as an “ultra-luxurious, uber-mega-resort” in 2006, before the historic Stardust was imploded to make way for a casino, four hotels with 5,300 rooms, 25 restaurants and bars, convention center, retail and more.

One of the few high-rises in Las Vegas, the 68-story Fontainebleau was supposed to open in 2007, but was stalled again and again by financing woes.

Fontainbleau’s original Miami owners, Turnberry Associates, filed for bankruptcy on the project last year, and billionaire Carl Icahn, known as a corporate raider, snagged it earlier this year for a reported $156 million.

The Miami bankruptcy judge declared, “This case is a total disaster.”

Las Vegas contractors have sued for unpaid work in a city with the highest unemployment in the U.S. (Officially, it’s 15 per cent; unofficially, it’s likely higher than 20 per cent, according to vocational experts.)

Echelon was promoted as producing 10,000 jobs, and Fontainebleau, 6,000, in a city dependent on tourism and construction.

Requests for comment from Boyd Gaming and Turnberry were unsuccessful.

The Rising Cost of Gambling Addiction

Beyond the glitter and glamorous facade, are the Dirty Little Secrets the Gambling Industry wants to hide and politicians want to ignore.

This book looks like a good read.

Skolnik argues that as other states consider the seductive allure of casino gambling -- politicians love the jobs and the revenue that frees them from having to raise taxes or cut spending -- they better look at Nevada and consider the consequence of gambling culture.

Although gambling can't be blamed for all our woes, let's admit where we are: "Las Vegas and Nevada boast higher rates of crime, bankruptcy filings, home foreclosures, divorces, and suicides than anywhere else in the country." Not sure "boasts" is the appropriate word.


Who knew? My former coworker struggles with a gambling addiction
By J. Patrick Coolican

When I arrived in Las Vegas I was surprised by the lack of media coverage of the social costs of gambling and problem gambling. To some extent, it is understandable -- there's a "been there, done that" instinct among reporters who have already told the story many times. And, of course, problem gambling is a story of little interest to casino executives, who media outlets rely upon as important sources of both advertising dollars and journalistic access.

Still, it made no sense: Problem gambling could be its own beat here, like mine safety in West Virginia or brain injuries among NFL or war vets.

Sam Skolnik arrived at the Las Vegas Sun in 2006 with the same bafflement about the lack of comprehensive coverage of problem gambling. Today, he corrects that deficiency with his book on the subject, "High Stakes: The Rising Cost of America's Gambling Addiction," [video available] a cogent overview of the rapid rise of legalized gambling and its consequences.

During his three-plus years at the Sun, Skolnik covered the courthouse and Las Vegas City Hall, whereas I've always worked out of our main newsroom, so we had almost no interaction. I rarely if ever saw him socially, and now I have an inkling why: On the first page of "High Stakes," Skolnik acknowledges struggling with a gambling addiction since 2001, a poker habit that never had him stealing or evicted, but did leave him in hock to payday lenders and at times living on a diet of "store-brand mac and cheese, ramen noodles, saltines and seltzer water." I knew he played poker, but had no earthly idea to this extent.

And in this revelation we are compelled to stop and realize that our community is brimming with this kind of poverty -- and worse -- because of gambling. (But on the other hand, brimming with affluence because of gambling, too.)

I'm a junky for trashy addiction memoirs -- most recently, "Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man" -- so I would have loved to read some depraved account of a former colleague's gambling problem. But Skolnik isn't Dostoeyevsky -- he's not that kind of writer and insofar as I know him, he's always struck me as an eminently decent person without the immense self possession required of addiction memoir writing. He hasn't set out to write "The Gambler."

He's actually a gumshoe reporter who happens to have an intimate, first-hand understanding of the gambling universe, aided not only by his poker games, but also by a yearlong fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he studied the issue of problem gambling closely.

This book doesn't quite have the devastating power of something like "Fast Food Nation," Eric Schlosser's indictment of the fast food industry. Skolnik didn't have the same time or resources -- or insider sources -- at his disposal.

Still, this is good start, and I hope the book draws attention to an issue that is at once omnipresent but also strangely hidden here in Las Vegas. The suicides and murder-suicides, the property crime, the child neglect -- we often assume these are tied to problem gambling (and/or other addictions our city aids and abets), but we rarely tie the disparate pieces together into the obvious whole.

The book has chapters on the explosion of gambling in other states, marketing to Asian and Asian-American gamblers, the science of gambling addiction and treatment and the role the industry has played -- and not played -- in mitigating the effects of problem gambling. I'll leave other analysts with more expertise to evaluate those sections, interesting as they are.

But in a chapter I know a bit more about and of particular interest to Las Vegas readers, Skolnik rips off the sparkly silicone sheen of glamour that coats the Strip and shows the whole skein of pathologies we live with here.

With our 100,000 or so problem or pathological gamblers, our 14 Gamblers Anonymous meetings per day and our 14,000 video poker and slot machines, "This gambling mecca has become the nation's problem gambling capital. In the last several decades, gambling has been absorbed into every facet of life in Las Vegas, and the consequences have been dire," Skolnik writes.

Skolnik argues that as other states consider the seductive allure of casino gambling -- politicians love the jobs and the revenue that frees them from having to raise taxes or cut spending -- they better look at Nevada and consider the consequence of gambling culture.

Although gambling can't be blamed for all our woes, let's admit where we are: "Las Vegas and Nevada boast higher rates of crime, bankruptcy filings, home foreclosures, divorces, and suicides than anywhere else in the country." Not sure "boasts" is the appropriate word.

The point here isn't to get all puritanical and pretend we're going to be something other than what we are -- a libertine's delight. Rather, the point is to recognize human weakness and be more honest as a community about the impact of our most important industry, and deal with the impact accordingly, which is to say, far more aggressively.

Gambling’s costs are far greater than its gains

Local view: Gambling’s costs are far greater than its gains
The annual gambling-expansion debate in Minnesota rears its ugly head once again. By: Justin Krych, Duluth News Tribune

The annual gambling-expansion debate in Minnesota rears its ugly head once again. Proponents choose to portray gambling as harmless personal entertainment without mentioning the consequences to our society and the taxpayers of our state. Instead of focusing on a stronger tax base from a healthier economy that produces good-paying jobs, legislators of both parties wish to rely on gambling to avoid the political stigma of raising taxes and lowering the size and scope of government. Subverting the role of being a gambling regulator in favor of promoting this negative behavior exists as another failed way to sweep our problems under the rug.

Gambling revenue costs all levels of government and Minnesota’s communities dearly. Estimates from numerous studies show that every $1 “gained” from gambling produces approximately $3 in costs. The studies also reveal that nearly 2 percent of gamblers become firmly addicted while an additional 3 percent become “problem” gamblers. Communities home to casino-style gambling bear rates of home foreclosure that measure much higher than communities without casino gambling. Finally, SMR Research estimates that 5 percent of all bankruptcy filings bear a stark gambling component.

Many addicted and problem gamblers turn to criminal activity to support their habits. In “Casinos, Crime and Community Costs,” a 19-year study, coauthors Earl Grinols of Baylor University and David B. Mustard concluded that anywhere from 5.5 percent to 30 percent of crimes in communities with casinos were attributed to gambling. These crimes undoubtedly ravaged the families and children of the criminals while victimizing countless targets.

Amazingly, gambling expansion focuses on its most dangerous form. Research conducted by the Rhode Island Gambling Treatment Program reveals that video slots exist as the most addictive form of gambling ever devised, citing two out of three gamblers who attribute their addiction to this type of gambling. Bob Breen found the potential for firm addictions established within one year for those playing video slots as opposed to a potential three and a half- to four-year addiction timeline for those choosing another method.

Gambling addiction affects not only players but lawmakers. State and local governments become glued to this stream of supposed income, finding it impossible to subdue the 800-pound gorilla of gambling after its release. Proponents of gambling’s expansion cite different benefactors of the proceeds, knowing that connecting gambling revenue to a specific need such as education or a stadium project proves useful in bribing the public. Unfortunately, the bribed bear the cost of the long-term losses years after the usefulness of short-term gains.

Yes, gambling as it exists now thrives close to home for most Minnesotans, but increased opportunities to gamble only stand to increase the number of addicted gamblers and the consequences of their lifestyle. More machines will seek to lure many new players to add to the ranks of those whose lives turn upside down from the enticements sponsored by the very politicians who supposedly serve the public interest.

Advocates of personal freedom say gamblers hold a right to do what they want with their money and bear the consequences of their potential demise. Sadly, the vast majority of gambling revenue is looted from the elderly and the poor, not from those of the upper class. As long as we rely on law enforcement to clean up the mess, as long as gamblers can file bankruptcy, and as long as welfare, unemployment, heating and food assistance programs allow gamblers to benefit, wagering the financial health of a future Minnesota on gambling becomes a bet with no winner.

Justin Krych of Cloquet is the northern Minnesota co-chairman of Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, or CAGE (citizensagainstgambling expansion.com).

Las Vegas: Party over

Party over
The city’s troubles are part cyclical, part existential

AS MAYOR of Las Vegas for almost 12 years, Oscar Goodman has made it his mission to personify what he calls this “adult playland” in the desert. He prances through the casinos with scantily clad showgirls draped on each arm (although he is happily married). He claims to drink a bottle of gin every night (but “never before 5pm”). In his office he sits on a carved throne and gives visitors a symbolic gambling chip that depicts him, with his trademark Martini glass, as “the happiest mayor of the greatest city in the world”.

Alas, much of this, like most things in Las Vegas, is purely show. This is not merely because the famous Strip of hotels and casinos that accounts for more than half of all gaming in the state is deliberately (for tax reasons) just outside the city limits, and thus beyond Mr Goodman’s remit. More important, few residents of Las Vegas would any longer agree that their city is either great or happy.

Nevada has America’s highest unemployment rate. In Las Vegas, unemployment has risen more this year even as it has flattened in the rest of the country; it peaked at 15.5% in September. Nevada also has America’s highest foreclosure rate. In Las Vegas more than 70% of homeowners with mortgages owe more to the bank than their houses are worth. This desert valley, which once represented the most extreme pleasures in American consumerism, now has the most severe hangover.

There are signs of recovery, but they lag those in the rest of the country. Whether house prices, visitor numbers or gambling revenues, “the numbers are bumping along the bottom”, increasing in some months and flattening again in others, says Stephen Brown, director of the Centre for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The question is whether there will ever be a complete recovery, or whether something more fundamental has changed, threatening the existence of places that rely directly or indirectly on gambling. (Nevada has no income tax, for example, financing its services largely from gaming and sales taxes paid mostly by tourists.) Mr Goodman, typically sunny, says “We’re heading back to where we were.” Others have their doubts. Las Vegas “needs easy money and easy virtue” to prosper, says Eric Herzik, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. Well before the last boom the state was built on excess, and with Americans and foreigners (ie, most potential tourists) “down on excess, our whole model is now being questioned.”

Once the famous Comstock Lode ran out of silver in the 1880s, Nevada made legalised sin its new foundation. It started with prizefighting, illegal elsewhere in an era of bare-knuckle boxing. Then—in 1931, conveniently pre-empting the Great Depression—the state introduced the country’s laxest divorce laws to attract frustrated spouses. On the very same day it legalised gambling, which has been the mainstay of its economy ever since. It is supplemented by complementary industries, from prostitution (legal in the rural counties and allegedly available in Las Vegas) to gourmet cuisine.

Las Vegas also “thrived on irresponsibility” in a second, related, way, says Michael Green, a historian at the College of Southern Nevada. Just as the booming gambling and tourism industries provided new jobs, the parched but spacious valley provided new housing. Thus the population of Clark County, the area around Las Vegas, quadrupled between the 1980s and 2008 (before shrinking slightly in 2009), as people from southern California, in particular, fled overpriced houses and moved to Las Vegas. This caused one of the biggest construction booms and housing bubbles in the nation.

Then, in 2008, all these bubbles popped. Whether in or out of state, Americans, who had recently felt rich because of their inflated house values, suddenly felt poor and out of luck. They stopped coming or, if they came, sat for less time at the tables and gambled less. They became “gun-shy,” says David Schwartz, the director of the Centre for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Tourists are now returning, but in numbers too small and with mindsets too cautious to help Las Vegas much: they are spending less on each visit than before the bust. Two huge and glitzy casino-hotel complexes, both conceived before the bust, opened recently, adding yet more rooms to the city’s already dire overcapacity and forcing other hotel operators to discount even more. And yet, even though Las Vegas has become “a bargain”, as Mr Goodman says, many tourists who want to gamble increasingly ignore the city (and intimate airport pat-downs) altogether by patronising Mississippi river boats, Indian casinos or the internet.

Mr Goodman, who insists that the city’s only big problem is the term limits that are forcing him out of office next year, rejects all such pessimism. He wants people to be aware of the cultural offerings he has brought to the city, from classical music to a new mobster museum due to open soon (a lawyer, Mr Goodman once defended alleged mobsters in court and even starred in the film “Casino” in that role). He dreams, too, of attracting a big sports team. A new hospital has opened, and Mr Goodman predicts a boom in “medical tourism”, as boomers come for new hips while their families have fun on the Strip.

Las Vegas has never been much good at diversification. It is good at one thing, and for now the zeitgeist has turned against it. But one day flamboyant sin will be back to help Mr Goodman and his city out. Just not very quickly.