Casinos – A Growing Industry That Creates Jobs and Destroys Societies

Here’s Hoping It Will Grow Itself to Death

At some time in the future  the scientific community may discover the genetic defect that causes normally rational men and women to lose huge sums of monies to casinos.  It is not gambling that takes place in places like casinos, it is the deliberate losing of money.  For any given night and for any given amount wagered the casino can compute to the several decimal points exactly how much revenue the casino will have earned taken.

The Dismal Political Economist is a former instructor in statistics and probability.  He once proposed to the Dean that the final exam in his probability course would be to take the students to a nearby casino, give them each $100.00 and any student who used the money to play any of the casino games instead of walking out with the $100.00 would be given an F in the course.  The Dean was not amused.

The growth of casino gambling is an unexplained phenomena.  On would think that after years of losing money to casinos the public would be fed up, but no, they just keep demanding more.  And because state governments can get in on the action and use casino revenues in place of raising taxes, the parlors just  keep coming.

After shunning the concept for years, Massachusetts, seeking solutions to its budget woes, last fall became the first New England state to pass a broad law allowing resort casinos. Now others may not be far behind.

Under the Massachusetts law, which allows for three casinos to be built in three different regions, the state will pocket 25 percent of the gambling proceeds, plus 40 percent of the proceeds from a separate slot parlor that it will also allow. 

And the rest of New England is also taking a look at what Massachusetts is doing, and thinking , why not?

In New Hampshire, which dreads losing tourism money to Massachusetts, lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow up to four casinos there. Maine just granted its first casino license to a six-year-old Bangor slot parlor that will add table games next month, and a second casino is expected to open in Oxford this year. Both are the result of voter referendums. Rhode Island, which already has two slot parlors, will hold a referendum in November on whether to allow table games at one of them.

In Connecticut, the two tribes that offer gambling at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are now worried about losing patrons to Massachusetts. The Mohegan tribe is hoping to win one of the Massachusetts casino licenses and open a Mohegan Sun location in Palmer, a town of 12,750, which borders Brimfield.

The hope here, of course, is that overbuilding will result in severe harm to the industry, but that is not very likely.  If, like The Dismal Political Economist believes, casino gambling is regarded as a “tax on stupidity” then it is probable that the industry has unlimited growth potential, the supply of stupidity being so great.  Conservatives like to say that if you tax something you get less of it, in this case taxing stupidity seems to create more of it.