7 Reasons To Dislike Casinos

There are many reasons to think that Casinos have had their day and ought to quietly pass the torch on to the new internet generation. Here are just some of them.

1. They’re Ugly

It is really hard to understate just what gloriously disgusting carbuncles these edifies are in terms of pure aesthetics. Despite conceptual drawings always showing sweepingly interesting architecture the final results of modern casino building projects only ever fall into two broad categories. Firstly the slab sided monstrosities that are so prevalent in North America, and secondly the unbelievably gaudy vomit-inducing designs of the far east where taste hasn’t yet caught on.

Boston, for example, has recently agreed to let the oompa loompa that is Steve Wynn build a casino nearby and lo if it isn’t going to be an ugly melted block-house with a little token landscaping to disguise just how ghastly it’ll look from each and every angle. Most casinos are a blot on the landscape and the more grandiose they attempt to look the worse they become with some of the most ornate the most aesthetically horrible. 

2. They’re Greedy

So obviously designed to give the house every edge in every way the overriding atmosphere of a casino is not one of luxury and suave sophistication, whatever their publicity might say, but of a mechanical menace and the distinct feeling one is being farmed for one’s hard earned cash in each and every way possible. Recently odds changed in some of the largest casinos without anyone being told, the house creeping up its edge slightly to make up for shortfalls in revenue.

This conveyor-belt style operation that prides itself on occupancy rates and turnaround times always brings out the worst in the faux-servility industry with the constant feeling of being funneled and directed, cordoned off and exploited. The extreme overheads of real-world casino operation mean that in face of competition from sites providing internet betting in the US and elsewhere their desperate chase of profitability comes at the cost of whatever atmosphere they might once have had. 

3. They’ve Objectionable Owners  

There really is no need to say much on this topic as it is manifestly self-evident, any industry whose leading proponents are Donald Trump and Sheldon Adelson is in need of a serious PR campaign.

Steve Wynn might be orange and look like he’s wearing a deflated “Thing” costume from the Fantastic Four, but nothing on earth says there’s something seriously wrong like Donald Trump’s wig. No one who believes they look good in that head-rug can possibly be doing something positive in the world.

Are Casinos Carbuncles?
• Do casinos rip you off?
• Do they damage the environment?
• Are they economically dangerous

Adelson meanwhile has decided to start a personal war on freedom spending millions on political influence as he seeks to have US gambling laws changed so that online gambling is prohibited. 

That’s right, this hugely rich, aging greed freak has decided that because his business can’t compete with the internet he should be able to buy political votes until he can have congress remove that option from your world. The treasonous perverting of democracy in this manner is perfectly legal. How delightful. 

4. They’re Bad For The Environment  

Sticking a whopping great big concrete structure anywhere is pretty bad for the environment, the impact of the material sourcing alone ghastly to think about, but to despoil parts of Connecticut with an ugly sprawing estate complex that sits in the landscape like a zit on the end of your nose? How can that be anything but environmentally damaging? The pollution concentrations caused by increased traffic and an increase in local waste production also have to be accounted for.

Around the world the construction of large scale casino projects has endangered local environmental integrity in places of unsurpassed natural beauty. The Aquis casino project in Cairns threatens parts of the entirely irreplaceable Barrier Reef whatever local politicians say, but the mighty profit motive apparently trumps all other considerations. By comparison the environmental impact of online gambling at sites like Bet365 rather depends on how many packets of Cheetos you eat whilst doing so. 

5. They’ve A Negative Economic Impact  

The Atlantic City closures last year showed the perilously precarious position casinos occupy in the economic spectrum, their margins so slim as to be easily eroded, this leaves staff lured to work for them suddenly without employment in an area with little else to support them. The initial political enthusiasm born out of ridiculously optimistic tax revenue estimates warping the decisions of local officials, making them even more shortsighted than usual.

Whilst the massive upheaval in Atlantic City is perhaps an extreme example the lamentable fact is that localities can become dependent upon even the miscalculated revenues from casinos which leaves them far more vulnerable to economic shifts than in a more diverse local economy. There are also other additional expenditures rarely mention that arise as knock on effects from a casino in the vicinity not least of which is law enforcement.

6. They Attract Crime  

Often dismissed as the exaggeration of popular culture the link between casinos and crime is well documented, with even the largest developments being tainted with criminal investigations. The land deal in Boston for Steve “The Future Is Orange” Wynn turned out to be just a little less than run of the mill and it is by no means the only point at which crime intersects with casinos because casinos attract criminality. This is why they spend so much on surveillance.

The connections to organized crime are so well known as to be unworthy of mention and they alone are worrying, but it is the low grade crimes that cost a locality money in enforcement and prosecution costs, it is they that are a burden on the local tax payer. Casinos might gleam and sparkle but they are invariably concentrations of criminal behavior in locations that perhaps had very little prior to the casino arriving. 

7. There Is Now A Better Alternative  

The proponents of casinos will often look at them only in of themselves and not in terms of a larger market, indeed, as we’ve seen there are some that are gambling news of a return to prohibition will leave their market unsullied by competition to which they can not possible stand up. This refusal to allow even the comparison between online gambling sites and real-world casinos belies just how much casinos know their days are numbered.

Where once there was no option to casinos but the criminality of illegal gambling, these days there is a safe, secure, better alternative that is easier and cheaper to access and provides a wider and more engaging varieties of gambling opportunity. Were this a old war movie someone would be giving real-world casinos a significant look and a service revolver and one round of ammunition so they can do the decent thing and put themselves out of their inevitable misery.