That pretty much sums up every problem that exists in society.

 

And this just in from the Wall St Journal:

"The agency running the Powerball lottery might decrease the odds of winning the multimillion-dollar jackpot to stem a record-setting run of winners that is keeping jackpots small and, the agency says, causing ticket sales to plunge," reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

So let's see if we have this straight: Because too many people are winning the lottery, not enough people are buying tickets, so lottery officials are responding by making the odds even worse. They aren't kidding when they say a lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

The Northwest Chapter of FTE
we don't get lost,
we just get found

 

I haven't read too many of the pros and cons on here, so I apologize in advance if I repeat.

First, maybe for some background, check into how Las Vegas started with Bugsy Siegel and the old school mafia, Al Capone, and all of those guys. At the very least, it's interesting.

Second, a con can be the regulation. We don't vote via computer because of the extreme possibility of data corruption and not knowing what is going on behind the scenes. However, we don't have a problem trusting people who professionally collect money from hordes of people...most of whom should not be putting money out for gambling...in things like video poker, slot machines, and these scratch-offs. There is no way to tell if they are legimately creating these scratch-offs to match what the stated odds are. And after reading some of the computer-talk here and from some others, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to believe that a very dedicated computer "nerd" could in essence, cheat out a casino and maybe even get away with it.

Third...the addiction thing is very real. I went down to AC with a wedding party in September and won $275, but watched some friends almost lose their shirts after being up a TON of money. It made zero sense to me. Then, in December, I won $1700 on my birthday, and on games that I never played before. (I actually took the money upstairs, and rolled in it before bed). It was a lot to me, and when asked about 2 weeks later if I wanted to go down again, I was like, "ASBSOLU.......wait, no, better not." I knew what the potential would be after a few beers.

So, as a pro.......I think you should investigate what Siegel's main intentions were to legitimately open a resort in the desert. It's going to be tough to find anything that doiesn't mention the mob. Then, check into the security of the lottery and casino industry, and what it takes to work in this field, security check-wise, and look for any mention of how hard it is to hack the lottery and a slot machine. Lastly, see if you can find stats of winnings, especially by out of towners who cannot make it back to lose more money. Chances are, it's the local yocals who are in the most debt because it's right there at their doorstep.

So now, as a pro, you have some info to look for, and some info to look out for from the cons.

 

(sorry, I forgot to use paragraphs)Well, I was born and raised here in Las Vegas. I am not old enough to gamble(even though I have,shhh!). I love the atmosphere of the casinos here. There are many pro's and con's to gambling. We have an excellent economy thanks to gambling. Although, you have to figure that this is Vegas, everyone has been here or heard of it. If you legalize gambling in other states, the majority of the people that will be doing it is locals. That is the exact opposite here, everyone is tourists, so not to sound rude but we don't care if they lose all their money. In order to make gambling work in other areas you have to have the tourist attraction, so if you only have 1 or 2 casinos with just gambling then someone from another country or state is not going to waste their time there. When Casinos are built here, there is alot more than just gambling. Our Casinos have every type of game you can think of, resturants, shows, shops, movie theaters, hotel rooms, concerts, and much more. The pro's to all of this is jobs. There is always somewhere to work. You need workers to build the casinos, security, people to run the resturant, movie theaters, roller coasters, maids for the hotel rooms, and much more. It is not hard to find a job here at all. Every time a tourist comes here and rents a car or hotel room, they are taxed heavliy on them. In turn, it save the locals from being taxed. We are the fastest growing city in the nation because of big gaming. Becuase of that, there is non stop construction of houses and stores, so there are more jobs to be had there also. Or city has approved the building of Condo high rises, I think there are over 100 in plan and almost 30 or so being built. Vegas is known for its conventions also, why, because it is a fun place for a company to hold them because of the gaming. The condos are being bought up by companys that hold conventions here, because they let their employes stay through the conventions. Trump has even decided to come out and play with the big boys, he is in the process of building high rises also. We had one high rise open up for sales before it was even built and it sold out in less than an hour. In, turn it is very easy to find work here. In 1980 the Las Vegas Valley had a population of 463,087. By the end of 2005 we will be past 2 million. Big gaming has made this desert thrive with growth. The gaming and fun here atrracts young and old, and people from all over the world. That is why the Las Vegas Motor Speedmay jumped into the Nascar circut in no time flat. Nascar knew that they would make bank with the races here. Not only can you go to the races in the day, but at night the tourist hit the strip. From the last races we just had our econmoy make close to $80 million in non gaming revenue, I can't even imagine what the gaming revenue was. There are con's also, such as crime rates and what not, but the pro's out number them by far. The major thing that needs to be kept in mind is the attraction, you can not just have a coulple of low dollar casinos and expect your economy to thrive, you have to attract the tourists. I hope that some of this can help you with your project. Just do a google on Vegas and it economy because of gambling and you will be able to get alot more information. Oh, one more thing, the housing market. My parents bought their 1300 sq. feet house in 1985 fo $70,000. We just had it appraised at $230,000, and they are selling for more than that. Most home sell the the first week, but many sell in the same day. Hope this helps!

 

Vegas works because it is vegas.. if every state has gambling, Vegas will slow down.. i dont think it would dry up simply because it has been around for so long and made a name for itself.. but Vegas would hurt bad if every state were to legalize gambling. i think it would hurt if most states were to legalize it...
as far as the tourist attractions.. i dont see where that matters... you can have whatever you want there.. but you cant take an existing town and add gambling in hopes of becoming another LV.. there is but one Vegas.. and they better hope they stay the only one...

 

I don't know, I think kameronth makes a great point.

Atlantic City is doing ok, and they can build more because they're getting the business. They have a beach, a boardwalk, and history, just like Vegas does. While not as big, we're more accessible then a desert town. You can get there from Philly in less than 1 hour by train, a little more to drive. We're only about 45 minutes off of the I-95 corridor in NJ, and maybe 2 hours away from NY and DE. In fact, you can take Amtrak from the entire northeast corridor and only change trains once to get to AC. There's even a marina casino, and 2 airports in AC.

Sure there are some slots and racinos around, even a new one in the works for Chester, PA. The one in Chester is a terrible idea. It's directly on the I-95 corridor, but it's not a nice area, no one will vacation in Chester, PA, and the traffic it's going to cause will scare everyone off anyway...this is all assuming it happens. But the main point is, is that there's not enough tourism near Chester, even with Center City only 10-15 miles away...it's just a bad area.

AC however, has a multitude of Hotels, Motels and beach rentals, an active Senior Community, and beach resorts within an easy ride for miles up and down he coast. So even if people arent staying in AC, by being at the Jersey Shore, they're all close enough to make a quick drive to visit the casinos.

Remember too though, that a lot of these other state casinos aren't going to have tables, just slots and horse racing. At least I'm almost 100% that that is how it's going to work in PA.

 

It could slow us down a little, but not much. Las Vegas so far is 100 years in the making. I remember when we were worried about California allowing Indian Casinos but they never even made a dent on us, why? Because we have the attraction. I never meant that Texas could have another Vegas, but they could always have an Atlantic City. And yes, the tourist attractions make all the difference. Nobody wants to visit a couple of run down Casinos. Add other options and that will change the whole thing.

 

Gambling, Lotto style was introduced in Calif. to benefit the schools. A very old friend who was Asst. Schools Supt. told me that his schools received only 3% of the funds from the Lotto (scratch off numbers). Realize, the Education system in Calif. has its own basic Budget, and has had one for at least 70 years, and now the Lotto fund plus the Legislators are still having Bond issues turned down because the Education system is in shambles.

Casino gambling in Calif. is on Indian Reservations (Soverign Nations, as they call it). The only people who really profit from these Indian Casinos are the Legislators who have their hand out for campaign monies, and the Indians within the tribe who are recognized by the tribe counsel as part of the tribe. As a sample: Nearby Indians moved off their free, but poverished Reservation many years ago and went to the cities to work for a living. Now the Casino Tribes no longer recognize these employed, moved, working Indians as part of the profiting Casino Tribe.

Gambling only profits the greedy, plus the adjacent infrastructure (sewers, added public Hiways, extra Hiway Police, and added drunks to the Hiways) is paid for by citizens not attached to or profiting from the Casinos.

 

That's fairly common. Remember, like it or not, they are there to make $$.
They know people buy tickets for big jackpots. That's a proven fact. That's the reason that the 2 large multi-jurisdictional lotteries in the US exist. To sell more tickets by inflating the prize pools.
But, if they "max out" the odds in the current matrix.. IE sell enough tickets per draw that it within 2-5 draws, there is consistently a winner, the jackpots will not rise, and the folks that are big $$ dreamers ("I don't buy a ticket unless it's 100 million", or "Oh, $5 million isn't worth winning, I'll wait.") just lose interest. We can't have that.
So, the wagering matrix is changed. Instead of 50 numbers to chose from on each board, we bump it to 60, or, my personal favorite, the "bonus number" matrix. Works like a charm every time. The jackpots go through the roof, and sales follow.

 

i wasnt trying to imply that Vegas would be shut down.. i mean, i guess it could possibly happen if every single state in the mainland legalized it... then, maybe.. a big maybe... i just dont think every state needs it.. not because i am an anti-gaming ****.. i personally dont care how you or anyone else spends their own cash.. i just think that it's insane to legalize something else for the government to get its paws in... they get enough as it is.. why give them more? why lie to ourselves that things are going to get better with casinos.. they arent going to get better.. some things will.. Shreveport is a fine example of that.. they have made the riverfront really really nice.. really nice.. for the gamers... for the locals, we got a major traffic headache, hotels and crap on what was supposed to be land for a park..a hideous bridge that has neon lights all over it..it looks odd...and the schools are still crap and the crime rate has gone up.
again, i hope texas legalizes gambling.. that will take away over 50% of shreveports gamers.. then those of us that thought it was stupid to start with can say "told ya!"
every state cant have vegas...

anyway.. thats just what i think...