Would you support gambling in your city?

[Guest donaltopablo]

It's becoming increasingly common for cities to look to gambling as a way to bring life into their downtowns and offset budget shortfalls. Some gambling meccas have generated results beyond their wildest beliefs, Tunica being an example of a region where gambling has changed the entire face of the city. Everyone wants to duplicate the success of Las Vegas, with the billions of dollars a year in tourism and taxes.

Older cities have already brought Casinos to their cities: Detriot and New Orleans. Newer, boom town cities are considering it, Atlanta for example.

So the question is. Would you support it? Do you think it would accomplish what was intended, or simply be just another rarely used tourist attraction in the heart of failing DTs of cities. Gambling often brings a mix of results, giving cities the money to build new services they otherwise couldn't afford, but often times do not dramatically change the city, or the area. Atlantic City on my last visit seemed like the perfect example of this. Despite numerous Casinos and a conserable amount of money coming into the city, which has allowed for convention center growth and boardwalk improvements, many of the business and streets around the casinos themselves remain unchanged and unimproved.

[Allan]

This is interesting, because I was just thinking about this last night. I personally do not agree with the whole gambling and casinos thing. However, they do help to bring people to the city. People who might normally live their entire lives in the suburbs are given a reason to set foot in the city again. This would give them an opportunity to patronize downtown businesses as well.

The economic benefits of having casinos in the city are questionable. I'm not sure how much, if any they impact local businesses. The casinos have actually done very little to help redevelop downtown Detroit. They will be building highrise hotel towers, bringing hotel rooms to a downtown that has very few right now, and they will cover up some surface parking lots, but that's about it. I believe that all the developments that are occuring in the city today would've occured whether or not the casinos were in the city.

What the casinos have done, however, is helped the city to balance the budget. The casinos have brought millions to the city. Without those millions, even more city employees would have been layed off, and even more funding cuts for city services would be in order. After all, when a city has lost more than half of its population, paying to maintain the infrastructure and even providing basic city services is a major challenge.

People all along have claimed that casinos bring crime to the city, and will turn the city into the midwest version of Las Vegas. So far that has not been the case. The temporary casinos do not even look like the Vegas casinos. They are more down to earth, and tie in more to Detroit's unique history. For instance, the temporary Motor City Casino is located in the old Wonderbread factory downtown.

Temporary Motor City Casino

Personal beliefs aside, I believe the casinos are good for downtown Detroit. They certainly aren't right for every city, but they have potential to help many others. As long as cities don't pin their entire economic success on casinos they should be ok.

[bobliocatt]

Since most places already have bingo halls and lotteries, I see no reason not to allow them. In Florida's case its very hypocritical of the state government to promote the lottery, but deny casino operators to open establishments here. Same goes for Church groups that allow bingo to be played on their grounds.

[Guest donaltopablo]

I thought Florida had a few Casino's, including several near Tampa. Or are these strictly Indian casinos? I know Hard Rock was planning on building a Casino/Hotel in the Tampa area.

[Guest donaltopablo]

This is interesting, because I was just thinking about this last night. I personally do not agree with the whole gambling and casinos thing. However, they do help to bring people to the city. People who might normally live their entire lives in the suburbs are given a reason to set foot in the city again. This would give them an opportunity to patronize downtown businesses as well.

The economic benefits of having casinos in the city are questionable. I'm not sure how much, if any they impact local businesses. The casinos have actually done very little to help redevelop downtown Detroit. They will be building highrise hotel towers, bringing hotel rooms to a downtown that has very few right now, and they will cover up some surface parking lots, but that's about it. I believe that all the developments that are occuring in the city today would've occured whether or not the casinos were in the city.

What the casinos have done, however, is helped the city to balance the budget. The casinos have brought millions to the city. Without those millions, even more city employees would have been layed off, and even more funding cuts for city services would be in order. After all, when a city has lost more than half of its population, paying to maintain the infrastructure and even providing basic city services is a major challenge.

People all along have claimed that casinos bring crime to the city, and will turn the city into the midwest version of Las Vegas. So far that has not been the case. The temporary casinos do not even look like the Vegas casinos. They are more down to earth, and tie in more to Detroit's unique history. For instance, the temporary Motor City Casino is located in the old Wonderbread factory downtown.

Temporary Motor City Casino

Personal beliefs aside, I believe the casinos are good for downtown Detroit. They certainly aren't right for every city, but they have potential to help many others. As long as cities don't pin their entire economic success on casinos they should be ok.

I think the biggest problem with Casino's as an attempt to revive cities is that Casino's whole basis of operation is keep people inside and away from the real world. Because of this, I think it doesn't help city life one bit since the Casino want you to come in and stay until your broke, then go home.

Personally I enjoy gambling, so I wish more cities had them. But I would also hate for them to become like Aquariums, where every city has one.

[Allan]

Yeah, every city can't have them. Detroit has vowed to fight any new casino proposals within 100 miles of Detroit. Recently they spoke out against casino plans in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, about 20 miles from the downtown casinos. The plans for the Romulus casino have since fallen through. Now Flint (65 miles north of Detroit) is investigating the possibility of casinos; however, Detroit has said that they will fight any plans for casinos that may come forward in Flint as well.

[Scott]

Before the 20th century Boston has casinos on islands in the harbor. They were fine then and would be fine now. Why let Connecticut eat our lunch, keep the money in Massachusetts.

[Brickell]

I thought Florida had a few Casino's, including several near Tampa. Or are these strictly Indian casinos? I know Hard Rock was planning on building a Casino/Hotel in the Tampa area.

They are strictly indian casinos, Seminole and Miccosukee to be exact. The state limits them to video slots and poker, bingo, and table poker. They're trying very hard to get full gambling rights. I think that's why the Seminoles brought in Hard Rock to build/operate two hotel & casinos (one outside of Tampa and another outside of Hollywood). Miccosukee is outside of Miami, in the everglades. The seminoles also have one in Brighton, by Lake Okeechobee.

http://www.miccosukee.com/

http://hollywood.seminolehardrock.com/

http://tampa.seminolehardrock.com/

Back to the subject at hand, I'm conflicted. I like to gamble, especially table games. I think it's a personal freedom. I really dislike the idea of government sponsored gabling though. You take money out of the economy for the city coffers. I think that's something that people forget. The money isn't free. That 20 million that the city uses is 20 million that isn't going into the local economy. This is especially true in areas of low tourism. Usually it's the poor that's donating all that money as well. Like somebody else said too, the objective of casinos is to keep you in.

I've been to Biloxi and the casino's are lovely, but where's the rest of the city? It looks like an everage run down beach town. The money is nice but at what cost?

I voted yes by the way. In general I support it, but not the way most places are doing it. Eventually most areas will have casinos. Then regional gabling centers will really suffer in my opinion.

[DruidCity]

"Eventually most areas will have casinos. Then regional gambling centers will really suffer in my opinion."

I think that's a real concern, and the reason why existing gambling centers are branching out to offer other forms of entertainment to create an overall destination, rather than just a casino. One must wonder just how many casinos and other gambling operations can really make a go of it, before the region eclipses its saturation point.

I support the legalization of casinos in Alabama.

As it is, AL is one of the only states without either a lottery or casinos, and as a result, our already-impoverished state hemorrhages money and residents to Georgia and other neighboring states.

It's retarded to not keep some of that money at home.

I've heard that Birmingham has the largest amount of illegal sports betting per capita in the South.

Gambling has been expanded somewhat in AL, in the form of video poker at two of the state's four dog tracks, and pending legislation that would allow it at the others.

AL's only federally-recognized tribe is trying to cut through the red tape to build a $120-million Harrah's casino and 350-room hotel near Montgomery.

Mobile is getting a Carnival ship in October that will offer gambling on its cruises.

The way I see it, some segment of the population is going to gamble anyway.

Gambling's not my cup of tea, but if cruises offer gambling, Federal tribes offer gambling, and every surrounding state offers gambling, then Alabama's regular citizens should also have fair opportunity to operate casinos and keep some money flowing in state.

[wolfdawg54]

lakelander

Actually Florida does have a few casinos but they are on ships because in the international waters, gambling is legal. I personally do not like casinos, but they have given Jax a boost.

[BrandonTO416]

Sure, its better to have it and tax it then to pretend people won't be gambling anyway.