Lottery Board Ignores Casino Proposal.... (Atlanta, Auburn: 2009, insurance, crime)

[atlantagreg30127]

Well, those of you with hopes of a "pseudo-casino" at Underground can pretty much kiss it byebye. Especially once it comes out in a story that a number of the lottery board members are personal friends of Sonny Perdue (who hates gambling). Now it comes out a bit more behind the scenes, that this sounds more like the old "State vs. the City" type of attitude though, more than anything else. Now, I'll be the first to say that for me personally, "video lottery" machines have somewhat of a "Zzzzzzzz" appeal to them. But it would no doubt attract tourists to a remodeled Underground area, and spur development of other projects near there as well. A win-win situation for the City regardless of whether locals go or not. But it sounds like there's a lot more politics surrounding it than anything else...

Story (2 links) - HERE and HERE.

[brownhornet]

I dont think anyone will be surprised. Ill just keep going to Shorter.

[mslashondapjohnson]

[quote=brownhornet;7128050]I dont think anyone will be surprised. Ill just keep going to Shorter.[/QUOTE

I am still a freshly new transplant and was wondering how close the nearest casino is to here but I'll be okay and where is Shorter? Any isles of capris?

[johnatl]

Shorter is just over the Alabama line somewhere, right off of I-85.

I would guess (someone please correct me if I'm wrong here) that the next closest gambling would be at Harrah's in Cherokee, NC. That would be about a 3 1/2 hour ride.

[brownhornet]

Yea Shorter is about an hour and a half straight down 85. A very nice casino and they have a greyhound racing track also. I always fare pretty well there.

[Georgia]

A casino in downtown Atlanta, The Underground much less
Something tells me that would be a ingredient for disaster.

Call me weird, but I am one of these folks who see the Underground as a cashcow waiting for a miracle. The Underground has been through many, many, makeovers throughout the years and is still an issue in my opinion due 100% to the lack of crime enforcement and thug removal from the City Leadership, which seems to be commonplace.

No other city offers something like this. It is a neat location, and overall well maintained in regard to construction. If it was properly marketed and patrols were the norm from law enforcement, it could blossom. It just has so much potential, but turning it into a gambling haunt is only going to increase the blight and overall hurt downtown Atlanta. Lived to close to Atlantic City, NJ for to long. Just take that and magnify it tenfold here with the leadership in this city.

I just cannot understand why Atlanta cannot seem to make itself great for what it has already. We have so much in this city that makes Atlanta unique and special. The Underground, Cabbagetown, Sweet Auburn, MLK, Coke, CNN, The Fish Tank, etc., We need to quit trying to trade in our current girl for the non-existent more pretty one. Just give the one we have a make-over, clean her up, keep her safe, and watch the dollars and tourist roll in.

What's the next idea, taking the Vortex and remove the food and replace it with hookers and call it the Whoretex? Gotta love it, everytime a bunch of useless politicians bankrupt a city, county, or state, the first thought is to turn it into a gambling park so more tax dollars roll into their pockets. Just look what is happening nationwide. Just a damn shame

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Well, those of you with hopes of a "pseudo-casino" at Underground can pretty much kiss it byebye. Especially once it comes out in a story that a number of the lottery board members are personal friends of Sonny Perdue (who hates gambling). Now it comes out a bit more behind the scenes, that this sounds more like the old "State vs. the City" type of attitude though, more than anything else. Now, I'll be the first to say that for me personally, "video lottery" machines have somewhat of a "Zzzzzzzz" appeal to them. But it would no doubt attract tourists to a remodeled Underground area, and spur development of other projects near there as well. A win-win situation for the City regardless of whether locals go or not. But it sounds like there's a lot more politics surrounding it than anything else...

Story (2 links) - HERE and HERE.

Greg, Love ya man but on this I have to disgree. Heck, look what ole Wise's decision has done to further degrade our homestate of West By God. WVa is broke, so let's bring in gambling, heck the Native American's are doin it, why can we
Your town, Charleston has seen a steady increase in issues since the gambling casino in Cross Lanes opened it's doors. Now you have a bunch of poor sap's breaking and entering, robbing, etc., so they can go blow their hooch at the casino. When I was in Charleston last month I drove past the place and geez, most of those poor saps probably didn't have 2 nickles left leaving the place. Even my town of Martinsburg having Charles Town next door. Used to only have the horses there back in the 70's and Charles Town was the crap hole. Placed closed down, crime dropped, and the town grew. Wise then re-opened the casino and track and in 5 years crime, mostly from saps getting gambling money and of course the hash and meth trade, has increased ten fold back to 1970 old track levels.
Now imagine the casino in downtown Atlanta The areas I'm talking about and we can even throw in AC, NJ into the mix and we still have half the people compared to Atlanta's levels.

No, this won't bring anything but further blight, not development to Atlanta.

For the board, I am not a anti-gamer. I enjoy Las Vegas and Mohegan Sun. But these were locations built for specifically this. Then again, Vegas does seem to be a regular on COPS.

Atanta's treasures? Just gets back to my last post.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Georgia

Greg, Love ya man but on this I have to disgree. Heck, look what ole Wise's decision has done to further degrade our homestate of West By God. WVa is broke, so let's bring in gambling, heck the Native American's are doin it, why can we
Your town, Charleston has seen a steady increase in issues since the gambling casino in Cross Lanes opened it's doors. Now you have a bunch of poor sap's breaking and entering, robbing, etc., so they can go blow their hooch at the casino.

Well, I mean we all don't have to agree, but here's my take on this....

First of all, Charleston has NEVER been Mayberry. When I was a young kid in the early 1970s growing up there, you never dared leave stuff on the porch or it would get stolen, and long before the casino opened, the bank robbery rate was much higher than average towns that size - it had to do with the fact that most people there fall under the national income levels, and most everyone has it rough on some level. It's just a "poor" city (by Atlanta standards). But that's a good topic for the WV room which we might just have to explore.

My theory on gambling/crime:

Go find a good shrink. Most will tell you that gambling itself is not the problem with those people - those people have an addiction problem. The chemicals in the parts of their brains that control addiction are whacky, and they need therapy and many times medication, in order to work the stuff back to normal levels.

The casinos don't CAUSE the addiction - they already HAVE an addiction problem. If you were to look at the history of those people before the casinos open, you would I bet (no pun) find a history of addictive behavior in their lives. Maybe they ate too much, or shopped on QVC until they maxed out their credit cards. Maybe they were an Ebay addict, or a porn addict, or maybe even smoked pot till they dropped. A casino opens, and some of those people will substitute one addiction for another. If you close the casino, I can promise you, those people will switch to something else to abuse (again, drugs, food, porn, whatever) - it may not be as visible as their stumbling out of a casino building, but in their lives or homes, they will still be addicted to something, with or without the casino there.

That's one viewpoint on a medical level. On a much simpler note, we have to acknowledge the fact that "gaming" is a form of entertainment for millions of people who DO NOT have addiction problems, and it's not fair to those people to ban something because some people can't control themselves. Heck - 70% of Americans overeat and cost us billions of dollars in insurance costs because of weight-related illnesses as a result. Should we ban all junk food because of this? Hmmmmmmm.. food for thought.