Racing Toward Too Many Casinos?

The choice of location for a new casino project is always fraught with difficulties but a new one begins to arise as proximity to other pre-existing gambling locations becomes more and more prevalent

I don’t hunt. I mean I probably would if were to put food on my table but as a pastime or sport I’m afraid my middle class liberal upbringing has instilled a deep seated lack of enthusiasm for killing living creatures for fun. Growing up in London I also had a rather ingrained dislike of the Metropolitan Police who are, as with many other inner-city police forces, a bunch of intimidatory thugs. Thus when the pro-fox hunting people descended upon the capital to protest at the banning of their recreation, the ensuing riot made for a very watchable, but wholly unimportant, bout of scuffles and fisticuffs.

Casino Placement Controversy In Seneca

• Lago chosen to gain new license
• Racinos in the area object to this decision
• Governor steps in to assess situation

The coverage was close up and graphic, the injuries were real and I for one sat at home, cup of tea in hand, not giving a damn which of the two sides came away victorious and quietly hoping there would be a bodycount at the end of the day’s play. Such situations are rare. Much of the time the media like you to have some semblance of sympathy for one side or another, usually in line with their owners political views or the agenda of those that run the organization and attempt to lean you towards those feelings.

But as with the pro-fox hunting idiots versus police battle, there are some moments where you can’t pick a side, where both the combatants are equally devoid of attraction, where you really don’t care who wins, loses or bursts into tears whilst it happens. The scarcity of these eventualities entirely due to the bias of the news media one way or another, but sometimes you still come across a situation where the winners and losers are just as bad as each other and the overall result means not a jot to you. They are wonderful moments of arbitrary innocence and a lack of involvement you should treasure.

This is especially true when both sides seem to have brought it upon themselves, you can’t take to the streets of London in your thousands gambling news of your protest won’t have reached the Met. They’ll be there, and they’ll be hitting some of you. Get used to the concept. It is a concept that now begins to readily apply to the limits of the greedy capitalist envelope that bricks-and-mortar casinos are beginning to nudge up against. In true omen-of-collapse style they’re beginning to feed off each other.

Racino Owners Bemoan Casino Placement

Just what possessed the Gaming Facility Location Board to give the go ahead for the Lago Resort and Casino in Seneca County seems to escape most observers. There are three Racinos and an Indian casino within 75 miles of the site and that’s going to have an impact on both their existing trade and that of the new proposed casino project touted to cost over $425 million. “We just thought,” claims chairman Kevin Law, “it had the best chance for success in that region.” However the governor of the state Andrew Cuomo has already requested this decision be re-examined.

US gambling laws being what they are the placement of casinos has become one of the mainstays of legislative bodies across the country and the rivalries between biders for licenses and the towns that would benefit or suffer by their placement has become an ever larger part of local politics in the US. Lago’s own figures show it removing $133 million from the revenues of existing gambling establishments in the area, a figure Racinos will struggle to make up for as their decline continues it’s sad slide into oblivion.

Thus the racinos complain bitterly and mutter of profit loss and falling revenues and discuss hundreds of millions of dollars as small percentages of their operations year on year. The racinos don’t expect to go bust, not at all, they merely don’t expect to be able to grow as much as they were forecast to before this choice of location was made. This, they consider, is a massive problem, but for the rest of us, sat at home reading about it, it does appear to just be quite a few very rich people and companies fighting over who gets the right to fleece people.

When someone is crying about the fact they won’t be able to take however many EXTRA millions of dollars in revenue in some mythical future expansion, despite already raking in very healthy profits and showing small margins of adequate growth, you do have to ask yourself……..who are they kidding? The racinos complain that they’ll have to make up a loss in revenues in terms of purses offered, but that still won’t leave them destitute, and for them to whine about competition of any variety is frankly just a pathetic.

Revenues Down Already So Why The Fuss?

Of course in a world where image is everything already Finger Lakes is pretending that this spells the end of the world as they know it, listing the number of jobs it threatens, whispering darkly about the fate of the horses, and indeed going on to attempt to portray this decision as being tantamount to barbequing employees children. This is just the addition of a casino. What happens when people start to demand the right to gamble without leaving home, on the internet? What will these racinos and casinos do then? Complain Google is ruining their lives?

The over saturation of the region with gambling establishments by tax hungry state governments was always just saving up issues like this. Racino profits fell by just over 2% last year on the one previously, and in the up state region that was 5%, and that was without this new casino even being mentioned. So apparently fewer and fewer people were going horse racing anyway, and if that’s the case surely this is just supply and demand? People want casinos not racinos so lets build one. Capitalism in action, right?

But they don’t see it like that. They’re greedy and objectionable, they care not a jot for the ebb and flow of consumer driven capitalism, they have no concern for anyone else’s well-being or situation, these people open these horrible gaudy noisy dirty farms that funnel people through a mechanism of experience that drains them of their money before sending them on their way. It is unsurprising really that more and more people are beginning to bet on sports in the US on the internet instead.

The days of the bricks-and-mortar casino are numbered. Macau shows the signs, Vegas knows the score, Atlantic City already taken the punishment, but there’s more and worse to come as more and more casinos are added to a pot of players that grows no bigger. Someone somewhere is going to lose out and since they’re all rich weirdos or faceless corporations chasing profit from providing service just a little bit closer to me than the other guys, I don’t care who wins, loses or bursts into tears. A pox on all their houses.