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Old 10-30-2012, 10:31 AM
 
Location: It's in the name!
7,078 posts, read 9,530,476 times
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I came across this article in the huffingtonpost and thought to myself that there are many who may still have the perception that what MGM is planning will be some sort of Charles Town Hollywood or even an Atlantic City style casino. I think if people can recall the casino/resorts in the James Bond movies, their perception would change. No one looks at the following resorts and thinks to themselves that they are seedy, unsafe, or a blight on the surrounding community. Also notice that most of them are also on the banks of a body of water! Hmmmm. I don't know about you. But I'd love to visit any one of these resorts. Talk about a local vacation!

trivago: 10 Unforgettable Bond Hotels (PHOTOS)
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Old 10-30-2012, 10:50 AM
 
2,429 posts, read 3,558,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adelphi_sky View Post
I came across this article in the huffingtonpost and thought to myself that there are many who may still have the perception that what MGM is planning will be some sort of Charles Town Hollywood or even an Atlantic City style casino. I think if people can recall the casino/resorts in the James Bond movies, their perception would change. No one looks at the following resorts and thinks to themselves that they are seedy, unsafe, or a blight on the surrounding community. Also notice that most of them are also on the banks of a body of water! Hmmmm. I don't know about you. But I'd love to visit any one of these resorts. Talk about a local vacation!

trivago: 10 Unforgettable Bond Hotels (PHOTOS)
Nice. Based on what they have proposed though it will probably be a scaled down version of slide 1 or 10.
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Old 10-30-2012, 10:53 AM
 
Location: It's in the name!
7,078 posts, read 9,530,476 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanScholar View Post
Nice. Based on what they have proposed though it will probably be a scaled down version of slide 1 or 10.
Yeah. I agree. I just wanted to give people a frame of reference. I hope MGM and I are on the same page. lol Have you seen any rough drafts or preliminary site plans or sketches? Have you visited there information center at the harbor yet?
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Old 10-30-2012, 11:18 AM
 
2,429 posts, read 3,558,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adelphi_sky View Post
Yeah. I agree. I just wanted to give people a frame of reference. I hope MGM and I are on the same page. lol Have you seen any rough drafts or preliminary site plans or sketches? Have you visited there information center at the harbor yet?
And those are great points of reference. Although the style would be more in line with Maryland's architectural style, it is definitely supposed to be grand and with a wow factor. No I haven't seen any preliminary plans since that would be premature. However I did visit the information center, attended a couple of information sessions and spoke with senior management with MGM and, if it moves forward, they will be going for the bang. Essentially its supposed to be an understated elegance that blends traditional brick and stone work similar to other building on the property but taken to another level. They also plan to build to LEED specification and seek the certification (can't remember which level). As you probably know there will be the casino, hotel/spa (400 rooms), retail (approx 10), restaurants(approx 5), a club (at least 1), a lounge(at least 1), and at least one performance venue (approx 1000 seats).The CEO of MGM's background is in architecture and his wife is originally from MD so he is motivated to build something that is distinctive/iconic.

One thing that I have found interesting is that, in talking to other people/voters, most don't realize that it is going to be more at that resort than just a casino. That unawareness goes for some of the other referendum questions. When I went to vote on Sunday (waited for 7 hours) it was disappointing the lack of knowledge that people had on the issues. Especially considering the reputation that the county has for having an educated population.
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Old 10-30-2012, 11:53 AM
 
Location: It's in the name!
7,078 posts, read 9,530,476 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanScholar View Post
One thing that I have found interesting is that, in talking to other people/voters, most don't realize that it is going to be more at that resort than just a casino. That unawareness goes for some of the other referendum questions. When I went to vote on Sunday (waited for 7 hours) it was disappointing the lack of knowledge that people had on the issues. Especially considering the reputation that the county has for having an educated population.
The worst kind of voter is the ill-informed voter. I'd rather they not vote. If you take voting seriously, then it is your responsibility to get all the facts. Not the slanted or non-facts that are dished out to you on the couch from the TV or radio. God forbid voters will have to actually read and do a little research. Google is truly amazing. But that's just me.
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Old 10-30-2012, 12:18 PM
 
2,429 posts, read 3,558,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adelphi_sky View Post
The worst kind of voter is the ill-informed voter. I'd rather they not vote. If you take voting seriously, then it is your responsibility to get all the facts. Not the slanted or non-facts that are dished out to you on the couch from the TV or radio. God forbid voters will have to actually read and do a little research. Google is truly amazing. But that's just me.
I agree 100%. And google is my friend...............on another note MGM has partnered with Royal Caribbean to combine their loyalty programs. Good news for those who do the cruise thing and want to optimize their points.

http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/20...yalty-programs
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Old 10-30-2012, 12:49 PM
 
Location: It's in the name!
7,078 posts, read 9,530,476 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanScholar View Post
I agree 100%. And google is my friend...............on another note MGM has partnered with Royal Caribbean to combine their loyalty programs. Good news for those who do the cruise thing and want to optimize their points.

Royal Caribbean strikes deal with MGM Resorts International to combine loyalty programs | Royal Caribbean Blog
Smart move. Baltimore is one of Royal Caribbean's ports. We took a Royal Caribbean cruise of of Baltimore a few years back.
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Old 10-30-2012, 04:51 PM
 
2,429 posts, read 3,558,971 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adelphi_sky View Post
Smart move. Baltimore is one of Royal Caribbean's ports. We took a Royal Caribbean cruise of of Baltimore a few years back.
Yeah it definitely is. Another thing that I may have forgot to mention is that the referendum will expand the hospitality program at PGCC to include training in jobs within the gaming industry as well as allocate money for transportation infrastructure and additional funding for police. Those will be allocations from the taxes.
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Old 10-31-2012, 01:50 AM
 
Location: Hyattsville, MD
304 posts, read 712,327 times
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Let me start off by stating I am a PROPONENT of bringing a MGM branded resort casino to the National Harbor. Why? For really one big reason, only: Maryland has made ourselves known as a non-business/non-corporate friendly institution, and that is why no one wants to setup shop here. What are all of the other bright ideas to substitute building a casino??? It's really sad to see how the ignorant hold so much of the political majority en masse. Even my grandmother (no disrespect, I love her) told me she was going to vote against this measure, until I explained to her why that would be a bad idea. She then told me she changed her mind and would vote for it. Her reasoning for voting against the casino was just based on misleading ads, misleading information, and ignorance.

Truthfully, I have only read maybe a good 5% of this particular thread. Too many pages for me. I followed it, briefly, from the very beginning, but then it started to take off and I wasn't in the position to keep up. Without reading, I pretty much knew what I was going to hear from the opponents of this legislation. I was looking for key comments. I went to the last two pages, and in just these two pages, I found shining examples of what I knew was inaccurate, misguided, or the wrong kind of thinking. I also found statements that I completely agreed with and were my thoughts, exactly. Here are a few:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Missingatlanta View Post
If we had more high paying jobs then we could attract a better level of people. We don't have highly educated people over here because most people want to live near their job. If I have an awesome paying job in Nova, why heck would I live in PG County. We need to make a push for other businesses to come here.
This goes to my previous statement. Maryland (specifically Prince George's County) can't attract better and higher paying jobs to save the lives of our residents, do to our non-friendly, anti-business way of being for many decades. There's a reason why we don't have Boeing Aerospace or Samsung Electronics or Toyota Motor Corporation or Citibank Corporation. It's because Maryland has not been kind at all towards corporations, whereas Virginia has been the total opposite. And, having to inject race into this because, sadly, it's relevant in 2012... talking about Prince George's, specifically, the fact that the majority of the residents are Black, doesn't help things at all in the slightest. You can't push for businesses to come here due to the stigma Maryland has built for ourselves against businesses. You think that businesses just haven't wanted to come to a state touching our nations capital ... a state that had the highest median income of any state in the nation for several years running ... a county that has the wealthiest black people in the country?? No, that wouldn't make sense. It's because Maryland has basically told big business to F*** OFF!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Barry Rock View Post
Casinos, especially being built from the ground up, would create a whole host of jobs for the State and the county, for a very long time. I mean, a wide variety of jobs. Not just $10 an hour jobs ... That said, every county wants those high paying jobs you speak of, biotech and the like. But guess what, they're not coming to Prince Georges anytime soon. Our elected officials are at a loss as how to attract them. Government agencies aren't coming to PG, Biotech likes Montgomery County and have also been steered toward Baltimore...
Quote:
Originally Posted by adelphi_sky View Post
...Let's be honest, those counties have a majority White and highly educated workforce. They also have enjoyed more political power in the region over the past 5 decades to attract most of the government agencies which have attracted a ll of the government service providers in those counties. This will not change for quite some time. They've had the momentum for 50 years. The government is just not going to build new agencies in PG just to make things even. In addition, there is no big industry in PG. At most we have the UMD and NASA...
^^^ This! These are the very words I have been telling people, and exactly what I told my grandmother when she asked me how I felt about Question 7. I don't really need to say anything about this statement, this said it all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Missingatlanta View Post
...I do not believe this casino is going to the be savior that people think it is...
You COULD be 100% correct and you could also be 100% incorrect, and everything else in-between. But, guess what??? I don't see any other bright, exciting, progressive ideas being proposed. This is definitely a situation where "beggars can't be choosy," as the old saying goes. This is an idea that most likely will have a lot more positives, despite whatever negatives it could bring. And this is something that is good as done, and ready for the wheels to start turning. I haven't heard ANY other bright ideas or any other alternatives ready to be launched. So until someone can provide one—knowing the utterly dire situation Maryland and Prince George's County faces—I don't see how anyone against this measure can have a foot to stand on.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bowian View Post
What about the commercial I saw this morning where O'Malley "promised" that the money would go to education? Okaaay... What is the recourse if the money doesn't go to education?
There is no recourse. Out of all of the misleading ads I've seen AGAINST Question 7, the only one I've seen that had some truth to it, was the one where it was mentioned there was a loophole in Question 7, that would allow for no new money to be put towards education. That is true. What Maryland could LEGALLY end up doing, is they can take X-percentage of money that is mandated towards going towards whatever education fund, and by doing so they would have LEGALLY fulfilled what they stated the would do. The loophole, is that Maryland can then just make cuts towards other programs or areas, to offset whatever large chunk of money was put into that education fund. So, basically, just using very crazy but easily understandable mathematics... let's say that Maryland stated they would put $10,000 from casino revenue into an education fund. Currently, only about $6,000 goes towards that same fund. That's an extra $4,000 that was promised to Maryland's citizens, if they would support Question 7. Well, technically Maryland has fulfilled their obligation. HOWEVER, Maryland can simply go into other funds go towards education or transportation or any host of other things, and start slashing those budgets until they recoup that extra $4,000 that went towards that trust fund. Basically, when all is said and done, we are back at square one. There's essentially NO new money put towards education. BUT, Maryland is not liable in the slightest. Technically, they DID put extra money into whatever new education fund they set up. So, Maryland could argue, we said we'd put an extra $4,000 into this fund, and we did. But, we didn't say that we didn't have the power to cut funds in other areas to make up for that extra money thrown into the education fund. And they would totally be held not liable and within their legal rights. It's just the gamble you take.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

At any rate, I simply can't imagine the dire repercussion that would ensue if Marylanders were ignorant enough to vote down this casino. I'm looking WAY beyond this just being a simple black and white issue that boils down to a big fancy casino that may give us a sea of new money versus a giant eyesore that will riddle the county with riff-raff, crime, and higher poverty. With us already having this nationally perceived anti-business climate, voting down this casino would pretty much be the final nail in Maryland business prospects coffin. If Maryland can't even get a clue and vote for a company as renowned as MGM, what other business would even waste the time attempting to come to this state??? We'd be done. You can forget about attractive some huge federal government agency or a big time aerospace company or some big financial institution or Fortune 100 company. No one would even waste the time trying. And THAT is what scares the hell out of me. To me, this is the "Be all to end all." If we say "Yes," this has the big possibility of opening up so many doors, specifically for Prince George's County. We could get those fancy stores like Armani Exchange or Guess? or Lord & Taylor or Nordstroms or The Cheesecake Factory and Harris Teeter or Whole Foods. We could get the fancy Fortune 500 or 100 companies to consider building branches here or even moving their corporate headquarters. But, if Maryland makes the giant mistake of voting this thing down due to common misperception and this feeling high + mighty or we're just too good for MGM, I believe this will have long reaching and long lasting devastating effect for Prince George's County and Maryland as a whole. That's just my opinion.
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Old 10-31-2012, 12:37 PM
 
320 posts, read 537,580 times
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Although I will end up voting for the casino to be built at the National Harbor, I am doing so reluctantly. I’m not all that concerned with where the money will be allocated and I haven’t seen any evidence that crime will all of the sudden increase in the area once the casino is built. If anything, I believe that the crime in that general vicinity will decrease rather than increase due to the state being so heavily invested in the casino’s success. That being said, my reluctance stems from what I’ve witnessed in my home state once a couple of resort style casinos were built there.

I truly believe that a casino built at the National Harbor would not doubt be an economic boon for a county that could use some additional funds in order to supplement its reliance on property tax revenues. In fact, I believe that the casino may even ignite somewhat of an economic revival in a few areas such as better shopping and improved infrastructure along with some other benefits that may not be so tangible.

The problem that I see arising in the not so distant future is that the money obtained from the casino will end up becoming a crutch rather than the supplemental income it is being viewed as now. The increased revenues brought in from the casino will be a welcome shot in the arm and I’m sure will be used to better fund education, police, etc. However after a few years of raking in this additional revenue, the casino money will no longer be seen as supplemental funding to the state’s budget. Before long I’m afraid that the state will have increased its spending to such a rate that even the revenue from the casino (which started out as sort of a luxury) won’t be enough to balance the state’s budget anymore. If that ever happens the state could be in big trouble. Since MGM is an outside investor/entity, MGM will no doubt recognize that Maryland is so dependent on casino revenues that the company has gained some new found leverage. With this leverage MGM may look to restructure the current deal and threaten to pull out if a more favorable deal cannot be reached. In essence, MGM will be able to hold the state hostage whenever they feel like it has the power to do so.

This is exactly what happened with Connecticut and their casinos. When the casinos were first built in CT, the state was flush with cash because the casino profits were being taxed at about 20%. To be honest, it was almost more money than the state knew what to do with. But it wasn’t long before that “rainy day” money that the casinos brought in ended up being money that CT desperately needed to balance its ballooning budget. The casinos’ Japanese investors were true businessman and saw that the CT politicians had haphazardly increased state spending to the point that it could no longer run without the casino revenues. Once the state spent itself into debt, the Japanese investors threatened to pull out of the state if CT did not reduce the rate at which its profits were being taxed. At that point CT was in no position to negotiate and ended up having to reduce the rate at which casinos were taxed by nearly one half. The end result is that CT has been struggling to make ends meet for the last several years and is just now beginning to stabilize itself.

Unless Maryland has a tight fiscal plan as well as the discipline to stick with it, I can definitely see MD going down the same path with the type of reckless spending that the state is known for. Other than that one particular issue, I personally see a lot of upside and no major downside with building a resort style casino at the National Harbor.
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