The Sheer Sums of Money Lost at Casinos Every Day Will Shock You

By Travis Hoium |   
October 12, 2014 | 

Have you ever walked by a blackjack table in Las Vegas and marveled at how much money people can bet on a single hand of cards? The first time I saw someone betting $150 per hand I was 21 years old, and I was shocked at how easy it was for a gambler to see that kind of money come and go.

But hundreds of dollars per hand is small change for big gamblers and the gaming companies that run major casinos. They have clients betting thousands, even tens of thousands, per hand on blackjack, craps, baccarat, and any other game in the casino. And you might not ever see the biggest hands being played because they're in private rooms off the main gaming floor.

Below are some numbers showing how much is bet at the average table and slot machine each and every day at several high-profile casinos.


Table games are big business

It might not seem so among the dings of slot machines in Las Vegas, but the biggest revenue generator at casinos today is table games -- particularly in Macau.

Below is a table that shows just how much was lost on average at Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS ) and Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN ) table games and slot machines every single day last quarter. The figures in Las Vegas are impressive, but Macau is simply astounding.

	Table Games	Slot Machines
The Venetian/Palazzo Las Vegas	$3,737	$185
Wynn Las Vegas	$8,130	$276
The Venetian Macau	$16,926	$358
Wynn Macau	$26,146	$1,163

Source: Company earnings reports.

For perspective on the $26,146 per day lost at the average table at Wynn Macau last quarter:

• $1,089 is lost at an average Wynn Macau table game every hour of the day, or $18.16 every minute.
• Wynn Macau generates an average of $9.5 million in revenue at each gaming table over the course of a year.
• If we assume a house advantage of 2%, to generate $26,146 in revenue daily, $1.3 million would have to be bet at each table every single day. At that rate, $477.2 million is bet at each table every year. (These estimates are likely low.)

 

 

Slot machines aren't nearly as popular in Macau, where baccarat is the game of choice, but you can see they still generate a tremendous amount of revenue.

The house always wins

There's a reason why casinos keep getting bigger in Las Vegas and Macau, and why gaming companies do everything they can to expand into new gaming markets, such as Singapore and Japan.

There's big money at stake, especially in Asia.

Keep these figures in mind next time you're at a casino. That table at which you might play a few hands of blackjack could be pulling in thousands of dollars in revenue for the casino each and every day.





http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/12/the-sheer-sums-of-money-lost-at-casinos-every-day.aspx


 

Twin River gets OK for more live table games after less than 3 months

Twin River gets OK for more live table games after less than 3 months
Published: September 09, 2013 Bob Thayer/The Providence Journal

Bob Thayer/The Providence Journal

A roulette table at Twin River in Lincoln. The casino has won state Lottery approval to increase the number of live table games.

By Katherine Gregg
Providence Journal
Published: September 09 2013 11:30

PROVIDENCE — Twin River Casino has won state Lottery approval to increase the number of live table games at the sprawling electronic slot parlor that morphed in mid-June into a full-blown casino.

A spokeswoman confirmed Monday that the Lincoln casino has been granted permission by state Lottery Director Gerald Aubin to up the number of Las Vegas-style betting games — such as blackjack and roulette — from 66 to 80. The permission was granted on Friday.

Twin River’s owners spent roughly $7 million to renovate the gambling hall to accommodate the live gambling action, after winning voter approval last November. They also hired approximately 400 more workers to oversee the expanded operation that opened on June 19.

In an email advising lawmakers of the decision to allow more table games, the state’s director of revenue, Rosemary Booth Gallogly, said: “This proposal can be accomplished with the existing footprint of the building without reducing the number of VLTs.”

VLT is the acronym for the 4,538 electronic gambling machines — also known as Video Lottery Terminals — placed at Twin River by the state Lottery, under terms where the state keeps roughly 61 cents of every dollar a gambler left behind.

The state’s share of the table game action is only 18 percent, and Twin River had dropped the number of VLTs from 4,752 in January to the current 4,538. The casino nonetheless predicted the new games would generate $16 million to $20 million in additional revenue annually for the state, including “companion play” on the VLTs. The state’s own projections for this year are more conservative.

August numbers are not yet available. But in July, the state’s share of the gambling bounty went up.

In that one month, July, the state reaped $24,891,666 from the VLTs and $1,078,879 from the table games, compared with $24,722,239 from the VLTs alone in July 2012, according to the Lottery.

“There will be approximately 100 low-performing VLTs taken offline during the construction period,” with no significant financial impact, Gallogly wrote key lawmakers.

“Construction in the Table Game area and in the High Roller room will be done simultaneously, with an estimated completion date around Thanksgiving. At that time, 100 high-denomination VLTs will be added to the High Roller room.”

And “since it will not result in fewer VLTs over the long term, and serves to satisfy a demand presented by these new gaming patrons, I support the request as a defensive measure against competition,” she wrote.

A number of questions have yet to be answered by Twin River and the state Lottery, including a breakdown of the kind of games that Twin River intends to install, and the impact, if any, on the casino’s staffing needs.

But in response to a Providence Journal inquiry, Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle said: “We received approval on Friday to increase the number of table games from 66 to 80. The request was borne out [by] the fact that the table games have exceeded our expectations in many respects.

“Twin River chairman John E. Taylor, Jr. has said in the past that the market would largely dictate any expansion plans and that was certainly the case here,” Doyle said. “Twin River is planning to announce later this week the plan and timetable for bringing on line the additional games.”
In the era before voters approved a separation-of-powers amendment to the state Constitution, Lottery decisions such as this were discussed and approved at the public meetings of a Lottery Commission made up of both legislative and executive appointees. Since the dismantling of this and other state boards, decisions are made internally, without public discussion or debate.

Aubin was not immediately available for comment. But when asked, Doyle confirmed Twin River’s request was made to the Lottery on Aug. 19.

State sponsored gambling is the third largest source of state revenue, behind sales and income taxes.

The Lottery is expected to contribute a total of $394.1 million to the state treasury during the budget year that began on July 1.

That includes $63 million from traditional Lottery games such as scratch tickets, Keno and other numbers games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, and a total of $324.6 million from the VLTs at Twin River ($298.2) and the smaller Newport Grand ($26.4 million).

The top financial advisers to the House, Senate and governor are betting that the new table games will produce $60 million in net new revenue at Twin River. The state’s 18-percent share would total $10.8 million, but after the $4.3 million estimated cost of regulation is deducted, they expect, the state will net $6.5 million.

House Finance Committee Chairman Helio Melo, who has been watching the monthly revenue numbers closely, issued this statement on Monday in response to an inquiry about the approval of more table games:

“I am pleased to learn that the table games have been so successful, particularly in light of the impending competition coming from Massachusetts. It is also very significant that the Lottery Division is ensuring there will be no negative impact to the VLTs, which are an important revenue source to our state of Rhode Island.”

Racing to the Bottom at Taxpayer Expense

Predatory Gambling was sold as 'RiverBoat Gambling' for Tourists, now they're docked.
Race Tracks were allowed Slot Barns to 'save racing,' then whined about taxes, now want expansion. [It was already acknowledged that the Massachusetts Slot Barn will add Table Games because it's a 'given.']

The Saturation of the Gambling Market by the Gambling Industry caused declining revenues and the state, any state bails them out.

When Government partners with the Gambling Industry, taxpayers foot the bill.

Indiana casinos win few gains from Legislature

Associated Press

The Indiana Legislature turned down most of the proposals meant to boost the state's casinos as they face greater competition from neighboring states.

The compromise that received final approval from the Senate early Saturday won't allow live table games such as blackjack and roulette at the horse track casinos near Indianapolis, where only electronic versions of those games are now allowed. It also won't permit the 10 riverboat casinos to build new inland facilities nearby.

Republican Sen. Phil Boots of Crawfordsville had sought those provisions and said he was disappointed he couldn't get an agreement from House Republicans who regarded them as a gambling expansion.

The bill does give some tax breaks by allowing the casinos to deduct up to $5 million a year in free gambling given in promotions.




http://www.ibj.com/indiana-casinos-winning-few-gains-from-legislature/PARAMS/article/41037

[Any State]'s addiction to gambling - our state needs an intervention

Replace the name of any state because they all believe the myths and propaganda of Predatory Gambling.....just a few more will save the budget, just a few more will save public education, table games will save horse racing.....and on and on and on, ignoring the costs, ignoring failed economic policy.

Note how all of the flawed arguments are identical.

What does it say about the betrayal of the Common Good when government preys on its own citizens?

Matthew Tully: Indiana's addiction to gambling - our state needs an intervention

Apr. 26, 2013

Written by

Matthew Tully

SHELBYVILLE — The sprawling casino here was heavy with the scent of cigarette smoke on a recent morning as hundreds of slot machines occupied gamblers who, it seemed, could be the grandparents of the pretty and handsome twentysomethings smiling from the oversized signs outside.

There isn’t much around the casino — a few cows on a farm in the distance, across the interstate, and a fast-food joint nearby. Those driving onto the casino property these days are greeted by signs on a fence that urge state lawmakers to approve table games run by actual people as opposed to machines.

That would boost revenue and, casino advocates have been relentlessly pointing out for months, create new jobs.

The table games issue was one of several casino-friendly ideas that lawmakers debated this year in the wake of new competition from casinos in other states. One state lawmaker referred to the table games proposal as the biggest jobs bill of the 2013 legislative session, and he was probably right. What a shame.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the industries lawmakers had spent the session trying to protect were in high-tech or other start-up fields that don’t do as much harm to an economy as they do good? Imagine if Indiana, instead of setting out to be a gambling capital two decades ago, had decided it would be the Midwest’s high-tech engine. Imagine if the state legislature spent as much time obsessing over good jobs that truly build an economy as it spends worrying about well-connected casinos, the ones that flood the Statehouse with lobbyists every year.

Our state business is gambling. It has been since the legislature took the easy route to new jobs two decades ago, sprinkling casinos around the state and sitting back as the money poured into state coffers. Now the state is addicted to the cash and lawmakers have to spend valuable time every year trying to protect casinos from competitive advances by counterparts in other states. This addiction leads to bad policies and proposals.

The addiction also leads to ridiculous arguments, such as the one put forward recently in an Evansville Courier editorial that said lawmakers who didn’t race to help Indiana casinos this year were negligently forcing them to “sink or swim without help to combat competition.” Oh, the horror of forcing a business to deal with competition! Listen, if a casino can’t make money, then it has bigger problems than the state legislature can solve.

As the four-month legislative session approached its end, Indiana’s ties to gambling were leading to all sorts of tired Statehouse debates. Should we allow live dealers to staff table games. (Who cares?) Should the phony riverboat law be changed to allow some casinos to move ashore? (Again, who cares?) Should casinos be allowed to give out betting vouchers without paying taxes on them. (Once again, who cares?)

This wouldn’t be so depressing if the legislature had tackled Indiana’s more serious issues this year in thoughtful ways. When I drive around Indiana I look at the landscape and wonder how it’s going to attract better jobs, revitalize dying rural counties and improve schools. I don’t worry much about the needs of casino bosses or factory farms that don’t want animal abuse videotaped — two topics of heavy discussion this session.

Even when the casinos don’t get everything they want, they still dominate the discussion and push more important issues to the side. It’s a distraction with a price.

Indiana is addicted to gambling. It needs an intervention. Its leaders need to tell the casino industry to go away for a while so they can focus on matters that will actually help the state’s future. Because adding a few blackjack dealers in Shelbyville will not be Indiana’s saving grace.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130426/NEWS08/304260052/Matthew-Tully-Indiana-s-addiction-gambling-our-state-needs-an-intervention

 

Massachusetts taxpayers: Be Forewarned.

John Epstein offered this --

Once states are hooked on the (dwindling) revenue, casinos always find a way to go back on their promises, leaving taxpayers to pick up the pieces -- and the tab!

Massachusetts taxpayers: Be Forewarned.

W.Va. Senate moves to lower fees on casinos

By DAVID GUTMAN, Associated Press

Updated 4:57 pm, Tuesday, April 2, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — As West Virginia casino revenues decline, the state Senate has endorsed giving them a one-time break in fees that would amount to a $4 million annual loss in state revenue.

 

The Wheeling Island racetrack casino has said that it will not renew its table gaming license unless its $2.5 million annual fee is lowered. To avoid the appearance of unfairness, the Senate Finance Committee agreed to lower the fees on all four racetrack casinos in the state by $1 million while the future of the gambling industry in the state is studied. The other three racetrack casinos did not ask for fee reductions.

Wheeling Island representatives have said they expect to lose money on table games this year.

In the first nine months of this fiscal year, Wheeling Island has grossed more than $6 million in table game revenue. They have paid about $2 million in taxes on table games, not including the $2.5 million licensing fee.

Sen. Douglas Facemire, a grocery store owner, compared the casino to his business and asked why

Wheeling was presenting isolated table game revenue rather than overall casino revenue.

"All you tell us is table games," Facemire said. "In a grocery store you have a meat department and a produce department but at the end of the day all I'm concerned with is the grocery store."

All of the state's casinos make the vast majority of their money on slot machines and use table games to help attract a broader audience. Wheeling Island has grossed more than $72 million on video slot machines in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

Revenue from the table game fees pay for in-home health care services for seniors. The state lottery commission has said it can free up $4 million in administrative funds to cover the lost fees, but just for one year.

Finance Committee Chairman Roman Prezioso said that the money for seniors was too important to risk losing, should Wheeling Island follow through on its threat to not renew its table game license.
"I think if that money wasn't tied to senior programs we'd have called their bluff," Prezioso said. "But how are you going to do that? I can't bluff with senior programs, guys. If they were bluffing, they had us over a barrel."

Earlier this week in another committee, Sen. Herb Snyder had proposed lowering the fees but recouping the money by taking back some of the subsidies that the state gives casinos to upgrade their slot machines. The casino industry objected.

The state pays 50 percent of the cost of replacement slot machines, up to $10 million per year, into a "modernization fund" to help casinos remain competitive with other states.

But Snyder today voted in opposition to his own proposal. He said that there was not enough money in the modernization fund. This year the state will provide the full $10 million in subsidies for the casinos to buy new slot machines, but next year Snyder expects that fund to drop to $8 million and to $6 million or $7 million the year after that.

The full Senate voted along party lines to approve the amendments that came from the Finance Committee. All eight Republicans present voted against the amendments. The Senate will vote on the full bill tomorrow.

Sen. Craig Blair said that casino revenues were on a downward trend because of competition from neighboring states and that a one-time cut in fees would do no good.

"The tracks should be able to help themselves. They've been turning profits for years," Blair said, referring to the horse-racing track components of the operations. "We're throwing good money after bad. It's called chasing a bet, and you always lose when you chase a bet."

Blair was also upset that Wheeling Island did not appear before the committee to present its case and its revenues.

"The tracks can't come in here with the frigging numbers? We've got to sit here and dig it up on my phone?" Blair asked incredulously. "You want money but you are so damn ill-prepared, why should you get it? Certainly if I walked into a bank and did this, would you give me the money if you were sitting on the other side? No."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/W-Va-Senate-moves-to-lower-fees-on-casinos-4404011.php#ixzz2PNAZ51Ir

Maryland: More than $90 MILLION spent

Both MGM and Penn National are salivating to invade Springfield, Massachusetts.

Politically connected firms hit jackpot in Maryland casino fight

Eva Russo/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST - GREENBELT, MD - OCTOBER 19: Ruth Wright, of Mitchellville, MD, encourages a “no” vote on Maryland Question 7, which voters passed 52 percent to 48, following the most costly campaign in state history. It sets the stage for MGM to seek approval to build an $800 million casino at National Harbor in Prince George's County.

By Aaron C. Davis and T.W. Farnam,

Nov 17, 2012

The Washington Post Published: November 17

In a matter of weeks leading up to Election Day, a tight circle of Washington’s biggest media-buying firms with close ties to top Democrats and Republicans cashed in on the fight over whether to build a casino on the edge of the nation’s capital.

In total, gambling interests spent more than $90 million at a rate of over $1 million a day, making the Maryland ballot measure fight one of the costliest in U.S. history. With huge sums of money to spend, and not a lot of time to do it, those for and against the measure turned to a handful of politically connected firms to help them get their message across.

As they waged a campaign for the White House, GMMB, the DCI Group and Mentzer Media Services, three of the largest media buyers for President Obama and for super PACs supporting Mitt Romney, bought air time for Question 7, as it was known.

In the end, voters approved the plan, which will allow not only a casino, most likely at National Harbor, but also table games such as blackjack and roulette at the state’s five previously approved slot-machine sites.

Those firms weren’t the only ones who benefitted financially from the unprecedented spending in Maryland. Former aides and campaign staffers of Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) performed work for the pro-casino side of the fight, which was funded in large part by MGM Resorts, which is angling to build a Las Vegas-style casino and hotel that could tower over the southern end of Washington’s skyline.

Reid has an especially close relationship with MGM. The senator and the company have swapped employees, while Reid has interceded with Wall Street banks on MGM's behalf and company executives are Reid’s biggest campaign contributors.

Those with ties to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) benefited as well. The public affairs firm of O'Malley's former communications director and the brain trust of his 2010 reelection campaign reunited to help push the gambling expansion.

As often happens when gambling rights are at stake, the deluge of money from casino interests spilled far beyond the political class:

Nearly a half-million dollars went to the Washington Redskins for what a company spokesman said was advertising. Campaign filings show a payment of $450,000 went from the pro-casino side to the NFL team the day before it publicly endorsed the casino measure.

On the front lines, armies of door knockers and outspoken community leaders — including the mayor of Forest Heights, the small Prince George’s County community to the north of the likely casino site — were also paid.

And as in other states where church groups have been involved, a coalition that organized rallies and gatherings of African American clergy who urged a “no” vote partnered with a nonprofit group that took in $200,000 from the opposition campaign, public records and the campaign filings show.

“It sort of took on a life of its own,” said Alan Feldman, senior vice president for MGM Resorts International, which spent nearly $41 million to support the ballot measure and has proposed building an $800 million casino and resort at National Harbor.

“What made this so expensive, Feldman added, “was such a well-funded opponent.”

That opponent was Penn National Gaming, operator of Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, a favored destination for Washington-area gamblers that could take a substantial hit if another casino opens in Maryland. Over nearly three months, Penn ponied up $42 million for a scathing campaign waged mostly on television.

As Penn and MGM upped the ante, every campaign fundraising record in Maryland shattered. By Election Day, the spending eclipsed the amount that Republicans and Democrats combined spent on every currently held elective office statewide, or the cumulative amount spent seeking control of the governor’s mansion since 1998.

It also put the Maryland measure in the stratosphere of spending alongside California’s costliest-ever ballot fights over taxes and same-sex marriage.

GMMB, Mentzer and the DCI Group placed over $50 million in advertising for and against the ballot measure through Oct. 21. Campaign reports detailing spending since then are not yet public, but campaign sources say much of the more than $30 million spent in the closing weeks also went to the three firms to purchase ads. The firms take a commission believed to range between 3 and 15 percent.

Without knowing the exact commission or the total amount spent on advertising, it is not possible to ascertain precisely how much the companies profited.

Coincidentally, the two sides say, their efforts also broke down largely along party lines, with Democrats working for MGM and Republicans with Penn.

GMMB, which has bought $300 million worth of advertising this year on behalf of President Obama, received nearly $22 million by Oct. 21 to do so for the ballot-issue committee supported by MGM.

Jim Margolis, a top strategist for Obama, said he was the GMMB partner who worked on the gambling measure.

Two other GMMB strategists working on the initiative have ties to Reid: Jon Summers, Reid’s former communications director, and Anson Kaye, who worked on Reid’s 2010 reelection campaign at GMMB.

Margolis also worked on Reid’s 2010 campaign as a media consultant. He said he met MGM chief executive Jim Murren during the 2010 race when Murren appeared in an ad for Reid praising his efforts to save the company’s CityCenter project in Las Vegas, which was having trouble securing credit during the height of the housing crisis.

The pollster that the campaign hired also had long-standing ties to Reid, O’Malley and MGM.

Mark Mellman was paid $364,000 for polling. He, too, worked on Reid’s 2010 campaign, and under O’Malley, the Democratic Governors Association has increased its business to Mellman tenfold.

One of the campaign’s top consultants, Craig Varoga, of the super PAC Patriot Majority, was another common denominator between Reid and O’Malley. Varoga ran an independent expenditure campaign to re-elect Reid in 2010, the same year he was chief strategist for O’Malley’s reelection bid. He also ran Maryland’s first campaign to legalize slot-machine gambling in 2008.

Kearney O’Doherty, the Baltimore firm of Steve Kearney, O’Malley’s former policy and communications director, had its entire office working on the campaign.

Kearney was instrumental in getting the measure to the ballot in the first place, working at an August special session of the legislature for Peterson Cos., developers of National Harbor, as well as MGM.

For its messaging, the committee backed by Penn, which is fairly bipartisan in its campaign contributions, hired Mentzer and DCI group, both prominent Republican consultants.

Mentzer, which was paid $14 million, has placed $100 million worth of advertising this year for American Crossroads, a conservative super PAC, and Restore Our Future, a group backing Romney and others.

The committee’s contract with DCI, which paid $13.5 million, amounted to a repeat of the winning partnership that Penn had used twice in recent Midwestern elections to suppress competition from rival gambling interests and expand its own casino footprint.

Neither a spokeswoman for Penn nor Brian Mentzer returned calls seeking comment; DCI declined to comment.

While nearly all of its spending through Oct. 21 went through DCI and Mentzer, the Penn committee did spread around hundreds of thousands of dollars to bolster grass-roots opposition in Prince George’s County.

It hired Jacqueline Goodall, the part-time mayor of Forest Heights, who said she was otherwise unemployed and looking for work, to be a spokeswoman for the opposition.

Penn also gave $200,000 to Family Faith Future, according to campaign reports. The group has ties to a Baptist congregation in Bowie whose pastor opposes gambling as well as to the Collective Empowerment Group, a coalition of black churches that sponsored anti-gambling rallies and which traces its roots to a banking coalition of black churches in the county.

One of the group’s founders, Melvin Forbes, sought a meeting with Post reporters last month to lay out a case against the gambling measure.

Last week he said he did not know the group had gotten any money from Penn.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/politically-connected-firms-hit-jackpot-in-maryland-casino-fight/2012/11/17/f377cfb4-2e76-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html

 

Rhode Island's Race to the Bottom

The arguments are the same - straight from the Gambling Industry Playbook.

The tactics are identical - make political contributions.

Schmooze the Rotary and Chambers of Commerce, they'll never question.

Make sure you pretend this will create jobs, even if the estimates are overstated.

Make sure you don't tell them that Table Games are now automated - no employees required.

Never let them know that this isn't the end of Gambling Expansion.

Casinos Pour Millions into Table Games Question
Monday, October 29, 2012
Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv News Editor

Twin River and Newport Grand have now poured more than $4 million into the campaigns to convince Rhode Islanders to vote in favor of bringing table games such as blackjack, craps and roulette to the state’s two casinos on next week’s ballot, according to a review a campaign finance reports.

The majority of the $3,987,711 Twin River has spent has gone toward toward polling, advertising and consulting fees, spending $3,987,711. Twin River’s political action committee (PAC) had contributed $7,700 to more than 20 lawmakers, including every member of House and Senate leadership, since the beginning of the year, but the PAC hasn’t filed a campaign finance report since June.

Meanwhile, Newport Grand’s has spent $379,314, which has Providence public relations firm Duffy and Shanley running its campaign. The slot parlor has spent nearly $130,000 with Warwick-based PriMedia on newspaper and radio ads and at least $80,000 on direct mailings.

The spending is not unprecedented. In 2006, Las Vegas-based Harrah’s Entertainment spent more than $12 million in an attempt to open a casino in West Warwick, but voters overwhelmingly shot down the proposal.

In August, Twin River spokesperson Patti Doyle said the casino’s board chairman John Taylor has attended Rotary and Chamber of Commerce meetings from across the state, talking about the importance of approving the table game question in order to bring jobs to Rhode Island. She said the campaign was working on “building an online community via our website where you can register to volunteer, and via Facebook and Twitter.”

“The education campaign isn't just about the paid media,” Doyle said at the time. “We've spent the summer months employing a street team of college students to be visible with education materials at a host of community events throughout the state.”

Campaigns Promise Hundreds of Jobs

The two ballot referendums (questions 1 and 2) will need to be supported by the majority of voters statewide as well as the town of Lincoln (for Twin River) and Newport (for Newport Grand) in November. It is possible for only one of the referendums to earn support.

Both campaigns have touted the benefits of voting in favor of table games, with Twin River claiming it will create 650 new jobs while preserving 900 jobs. Newport Grand says voting to expand to table games will preserve 200 jobs and create 50 more while protecting the $30 million the casino contributes in taxes to the state annually.  

But with Massachusetts committed to building three resort-style casinos and a slot parlor over the next decade, supporters of full-fledged gaming say the state could face economic peril if the referendum fails.

Gambling related revenue is the state’s third-largest source of income, at more than $300 million each year and Twin River has provided the state with over $2.5 billion since 1992. A report issued earlier this year by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) suggested that table games would benefit Rhode Island, but it also noted that the state will not be able to depend on gambling income as much once the casinos are built in the Bay State.

“The advent of casino gaming in the commonwealth of Massachusetts – under any scenario – will likely negatively impact both revenues for the casino operators in Rhode Island, and the state of Rhode Island itself,” the RIPEC report stated. “While it appears that the opening of casinos in Massachusetts may occur later than originally anticipated, they will open in the next few years, and that Twin River, Newport Grand and the state will all see revenues decline. Allowing Twin River and Newport Grand to operate table games will offset some of these projected revenue losses; however, it is also clear that the state can no longer rely on gaming revenues to support the same share of government services once casinos open in Massachusetts.”

Opponents Line Up

Still, not everyone is convinced table games are the answer for Rhode Island. In Lincoln, District 17 State Senate candidate John Cullen, a Democrat, is urging voters to oppose the plan, claiming the town may now receive acut from table games.

“What's good about zero percent for Lincoln,” Cullen wrote in an op-ed earlier this year. “The bankers and the [General Assembly have a seat at the table games, while Lincoln and Newport get thrown under the table! This time Lincoln's no casino vote will get us a seat at the table!”

Cullen is joined by former Lincoln Town Council President Dean Lees Jr. in opposition to the proposal. Both men argue that the town will not benefit from table games.

“It is important for Lincoln’s voters not to be intimidated,” Lees Jr. said earlier this year. “For years, state and local officials have said that we may lose revenue to other states and that we need to compete. With Foxwoods facing an over 2.3 billion dollar deficit, Mohegan Sun laying off 346 employees and Vegas Casinos in the red, these only show me that gambling is not the answer to compete with other states, nor to put false hopes on increasing our revenues to manage our ever-failing economy.”

http://www.golocalprov.com/news/casino3/

Tables Games

From:

Bill Kearney

Massachusetts 'Gaming' Future

Maine: What they don't tell you....

New Maine casino nets nearly $10M in 1st 2 months

By Clarke Canfield

Associated Press / August 30, 2012

 

PORTLAND, Maine—Maine's newest casino had revenues of nearly $10 million in its first two months of operation, while revenues at the state's other casino in Bangor have fallen since the new casino opened.

Oxford Casino opened June 5 in the western Maine town of Oxford and had net revenues -- the amount lost by gamblers [local Maine residents] -- of $9.8 million in June and July combined. It paid nearly $4.1 million in taxes, according to the Maine Gambling Control Board.
 

Those numbers are strong, and revenues from the casino's table games are nearly double what was projected, said Clyde Barrow of the Northeast Gaming Research Project at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. In July, the casino was winning an average of $2,471 per table game per day.


 

[When it is said that each Slot Machine permanently removes +1 job from the local economy, this is why. Clyde ignores the COSTS.]

"We had originally projected them to start out at about $1,300 per table per day and gradually ratchet up to $1,700," Barrow said. "Those numbers are comparable to Atlantic City."

[This tells you that Clyde's projections are merely guesswork - sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong.]

 

Oxford Casino is planning to add 10 more table games and hundreds more slot machines in October, said spokesman Scott Smith. It now has 529 slots and 12 table games including blackjack, craps and roulette.

"We're off to a very a good start," Smith said.

Net revenues at Bangor's Hollywood Casino, about 120 miles from Oxford, totaled $5.5 million in July, down from $5.9 million the same month in 2011. Hollywood Casino has 923 slot machines and 16 table games.

Some of the fall-off can be attributed to the opening of Oxford Casino, said General Manager John Osborne. This July also had fewer weekend days, the busiest days of the week, than 2011.

There's a lot of curiosity about Oxford Casino, but it's too soon to determine its long-term effect on the Bangor facility, he said.

"We believe long-term customers will still frequent their casino of choice, and we hope that will be Hollywood Casino in Bangor," he said.

It would be surprising if Hollywood Casino didn't feel any effect of the Oxford opening, Barrow said.

"That was always projected to be the case because they were going to siphon off some of the convenience gamblers in the immediate area around Oxford," Barrow said. "For a small facility,

Hollywood draws people from much further distances that would normally be the case, but that's because people don't have any alternatives. Once alternatives are presented to them, convenience gamblers will go to the closest facility."
 

Members on the Gambling Control Board are interested in seeing the impact the Oxford facility will have on Hollywood Casino, said Patrick Fleming, executive director of the board.

"We are looking at those numbers and will be making some comparisons, but we don't have a whole lot of data at this point," Fleming said.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/2012/08/30/new-maine-casino-nets-nearly-months/vF2sZtnq7zqcjXCBRfaHoK/story.html

What they don't tell you --


There are + 40 articles about Maine HERE. [Click on 'Older Posts' to see additional.]

From: Casinos kill more jobs than they create


...surveys show that more than 95 percent of the patrons at Hollywood Slots are Maine residents, not tourists.

In other words, that money was already in Maine's economy, nothing was added. Instead of spending it downtown at retail shops, restaurants, car dealers and other businesses, people just ended up losing it in the slot machines.

That’s not economic development; that's just a shell game. Economic cannibalism.

To illustrate this, it would have been worth pointing out that between 2005 — the year Hollywood Slots opened — and 2009, consumer retail spending in the Bangor region declined, according to the state Planning Office.

 Biddeford is doing better economically without a casino than Bangor is with one.

As for the increase in crime, the story mentions a single case of embezzlement — a woman who stole $40,000 from her employer and lost it all playing the slots. But it fails to mention an even bigger case just a few weeks ago — a Holden woman who was convicted of stealing $400,000 and losing it all at Hollywood Slots. Or the apartment manager in Portland who stole more than $200,000 in rent collections and gambled it away at the Bangor casino.

There are other cases too, and probably many others that we don’t know about. Do the public officials who gloat about all the revenue the city collects from the casino feel good about the fact that a sizable portion of it comes from stolen money?

The Bangor police chief is correct that over the past 20 years, Bangor’s crime rate has gone up and down. But what is important to note is that the nearly 40 percent increase in Bangor’s crime rate between 2005 and 2009 — the highest increase of any community in Maine — occurred at the same time that the crime rates in other Maine cities — Portland, Lewiston, Auburn — declined.

Rhode Island's Race to the Bottom

In an escalating Race to the Bottom, this is the losing Race that Massachusetts Governor Slot Barns Patrick created - instead of sound fiscal policy, states compete to create losers of its residents.


The Associated Press
July 13, 2011

RI slot parlor taking a chance with voters

By DAVID KLEPPER

PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Supporters of a plan to allow poker, blackjack and other table games at a northern Rhode Island slot parlor say the state could lose as much as $100 million if neighboring Massachusetts authorizes casinos and the Ocean State does not.

The race to bring a full-fledged casino to Rhode Island turned another corner last month when state lawmakers voted to place the question on next year's ballot. Voters will be asked to allow the Twin River slot parlor in Lincoln to expand its offerings to include table games.

Twin River and its allies say the state stands to gain an estimated 650 jobs and $60 million in additional state revenue if voters approve the ballot question. And they warn that Rhode Island's loss will be Massachusetts' gain if they do not. Massachusetts lawmakers have yet to approve a casino deal, but a spokeswoman for Twin River said casinos are bound to pass sooner or later.

"The threats from Massachusetts are real -- just a matter of time before the Commonwealth unveils its own gaming plans," said spokeswoman Patti Doyle.

Critics of the referendum note that Rhode Island voters have defeated attempts to authorize casinos in the Ocean State before, most recently in 2006 when voters turned down the Narragansett Indian Tribe's request to open a casino. State law requires voter approval of casinos.

"Every time this comes up it's rejected," said state Rep. Michael Marcello, D-Scituate. "At some point you have to respect the will of the voters. I think our time would be better spent trying to find other ways to bring more high paying jobs into the state."

A leading opponent of casinos in Rhode Island said the measures fail because voters don't believe the rosy predictions made by casino supporters. Rev. Eugene McKenna, president of Citizens Concerned About Casino Gambling, said a casino is more likely to increase gambling addiction than cure the state's fiscal woes.

"The people of Rhode Island see it's a false hope," he told The Associated Press. "So many people know somebody whose life has been ruined or seriously harmed by addiction. People realize casino gambling is not economic development."

But supporters say the economy, high unemployment rates and the threat of losing state revenue to Massachusetts may change voters' minds next year.

State Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, pushed to place the question before the voters. He said the state's budget problems and the new jobs promised by Twin River should convince voters that casino gaming will be a boon.

"We've got a head start. Even if Massachusetts approves it, it's going to take a few years to build the casinos," he said. "We've got a head start. Twin River is up and running. The state needs the revenue, and I think people understand that."

In the meantime, Gov. Lincoln Chafee has called for a study to analyze all of the state's options when it comes to gambling, including table games at Twin River as well as a tribal casino.

But Tony Mazzoti said the time for studies and economic analyses is passed. The 80-year-old Cranston man was at Twin River Tuesday to play the slots. He said Rhode Island should authorize table games at Twin River not so he can play them, but so the state can prevent revenue from heading north.

"We're last in line in everything we do in Rhode Island," he said. "The state needs every penny it can grab. And if we don't grab it, Massachusetts will."

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9OEQE6G0.htm

More false promises

Between misguided lawmakers seeking easy solutions and a predatory industry promising Fools' Gold, this states the obvious ---

Casinos are self-contained. They do not generate broad-based economic activity in the surrounding community. Table games will ensure that the casinos expand their own amenities that compete with existing businesses.


An easy solution may have hard consequences

Gov. Ed Rendell has asserted through most of his tenure that the state government would not authorize the expansion of casino gambling until he leaves office - nearly up to the day last week when he signed a deeply flawed law authorizing table games at existing casinos.

Like debt-ridden gamblers, lawmakers and the governor themselves were desperately in need of new revenue when they decided to vastly expand gambling. They expect license fees and taxes to generate about $370 million in state income over two years. At the same time it will funnel a cut of new vigorish to some worthy enterprises, including $600,000 a year to the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton.

No consideration of heavy costs

But the costs likely will be greater if not as obvious.

Casinos are self-contained. They do not generate broad-based economic activity in the surrounding community. Table games will ensure that the casinos expand their own amenities that compete with existing businesses.

The law perversely skews even a rational vision for the state government's role in education and economic development. State Rep. Todd Eachus was virtually giddy, for example, that community colleges will establish training for croupiers and dealers. Is that the employment base that will carry the state forward, as the state government reduces funding to universities?

And this bill was written for the casino industry rather than for Pennsylvanians.

In their rush to fill a hole in the state budget, lawmakers did not rush even to correct gaping flaws in the original bill that created the gambling industry five years ago.

The law does not resolve law enforcement issues that have plagued the licensing and enforcement process since the outset.

It allows casinos to issue on-the-spot lines of credit to would-be gamblers who are short on cash or other forms of credit, promising an exponential increase in gambling addiction and the social dysfunction that goes with it.

So pervasive is the legislative kow-tow to the industry that it even allows two developing casinos in Philadelphia to skirt that city's anti-smoking law.

Path of least resistance

Rep. Mark Cohen of Philadelphia put it well when he said that adding table games is the "worst way to raise revenues other than the other worst ways."

That doesn't account for the good ways to raise revenue. No one expected Pennsylvania lawmakers to correct the state's budget problems through anything other than the easiest possible means.

There was little chance that they would close a state revenue loophole that enables corporations to skirt more than $300 million a year in tax payments by attributing income to operations in other states.

They deliberately did not impose a reasonable "severance" tax on natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale gas fields.

And they continued to hoard their own operating surplus of about $200 million, rather than returning it to the taxpayers, as the government has cut services and jobs. At the same time, they refused to move toward a smaller state Legislature, which would mitigate the need for revenue.

Lawmakers who have found an easy answer in gambling expansion promote a vision for Pennsylvania that is as illusory as the promise of gambling itself.