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Its a bad deal for those counties that have gambling because the State takes a disproportionate share of the proceeds even though they bear little of the costs associated with it. They need to change the formula in a major way.
Being a border city we are one of the largest sources for income from the very beginning of the legalization of the gambling machines. We get squat of that money. Next to nothing.
During the 30's, 40's, and 50's, and probably at least into the 60's, there was gambling at the Greenbrier. During the late 50's or early 60's is when I became aware of it. They no longer even deny it. The Greenbrier Magazine: Autumn 2009
I know West Virginians aren't totally out of it, nor are they totally unsophisticated, but they are limited, like everybody else, by experiences they've never had.
I was born and raised there, and I visit there quite often, and West Virginians visit me in Las Vegas, so we talk. I also have been out to eat, stayed in hotels, and depended on service people there, so I know from comparing them to major resorts that they don't have the expertise yet to serve millions of tourists.
West Virginians (and I include myself) have (or 'had' in my case) no idea what it's like for millions of visitors to descend on us every month (3.5 million monthly here). Nor do they know what it's like to have a couple million more outsiders, all with big plans to correct your "hillbilly ways", and do things their way from now on, invade within a few short years, and take over. There are zero towns in West Virginia that qualify as big cities. And for reasons I've never understood, probably half of West Virginians have never even been across the state line more than once or twice, if at all. And yes, I make no apologies for this: that implies they lack the sophistication to be service providers ...right away. They also, if you're honest, do not have the temperament for it.
There are no traffic problems there that compare to those in LA, or New York, or even here in Vegas. In the mid to late 1960's Las Vegas was a small town with just under 200,000 people, but was still the primary population center of the 7th largest state (4½ x the size of WV) which had less than 500,000. Lot of empty space here.
From its beginning in 1905, this town grew steadily, but in the late 1980's, it was still only about 400,000. Then people in LA discovered that they could sell the homes they had bought for maybe $40,000, and get over $300,000 for them. They discovered they could move to Vegas a few hours away, and use their huge profit to buy a home for $125,000 cash, pocket the rest, and be done with big city problems.
None of the idiots noticed that those $125,000 homes were only worth about $80,000 by then, and by all of them moving here they were bringing their big city problems with them, and unloading them on us. But they kept coming, and like even dumber idiots, we kept building over 3,000 new homes a month, for the next 20 years, until Las Vegas reached 2 million population. That was right before the bubble burst. Now we have 14½% unemployment.
Try keeping an infrastructure up with that kind of growth. It was estimated that we were adding 100 MORE CARS PER DAY for 20 years to an already over loaded highway system. Our roads were built to handle less than half the cars we had on them. Our land is basically flat and empty so it's not hard for our roads to be seven lanes wide or more. Try building, in those hills, the kind of roads a small state like West Virginia would need for an invasion like that, and do it in just a few years.
Like I said, you don't know what traffic is ...yet. Be careful what you wish for is all I'm sayin'.
Are you talking about illegal gambling?[/quote]
Yes, illegal gambling at the Greenbrier. There has always been a ton of illegal gambling in West Virginia, mostly in back rooms of pool halls, in the numbers racket where a runner would come to your house to pick up your bets, and "newsstands" that were fronts for parlay cards. But apparently the Greenbrier was powerful enough ─ or probably the clientèle was powerful enough ─ that nobody dared make it a big deal out of the fact that they had a casino. It may have been known as a "speakeasy" I suppose, but I don't know that. There were lots of games in West Virginia of various sizes going on.
I once had an illegal mixed drink with the City Attorney of Parkersburg, at a bar right across the street from the City Hall. There was an illegal "21" game (blackjack to y'all) going on at the end of the bar, and a brothel upstairs.
One of my uncles ran small games in various locations in Clarksburg, and another uncle dealt craps and cards for him. A friend took me to the VFW in Clarksburg once to show me the slot machines. There were rows and rows of old Las Vegas mechanical antiques still in play years after we had gone to electronic machines out here. Wish I had some of them now.
Wheeling was the real den of organized crime with gambling, prostitution,a nd illegal booze. It was rampant there. The point being, if it were out in the open and taxed, it would provide revenue and jobs for the state. But everyone wants to pretend vice doesn't happen. It's really hypocritical.
Buttercup, if you click on "quote" at the bottom of a post it will highlight what the other person wrote so that your post stands out.
Its a bad deal for those counties that have gambling because the State takes a disproportionate share of the proceeds even though they bear little of the costs associated with it. They need to change the formula in a major way.
No they don't. The casinos make so much money it's hard to imagine. For years we've (me included) have said about Nevada casinos, "Let's don't kill the golden goose". But our casinos pay so little compared to places like Atlantic City it is ridiculous. They report hundreds of billions of dollars a year in the take, but the state is broke. It's time we stopped making excuses for them and make them pay a fairer share. I'm not big on overtaxing anyone, but another 1 or 2% wouldn't hurt them at all.
I was trying to partial quote and messed it up. There was gambling at several places outside the Greenbrier and Greenbrier limos would take you there. One was barely outside the gate. There's a story about one of the Forbes that involved the closing of these places. I'll see if I can round that up.
Its a bad deal for those counties that have gambling because the State takes a disproportionate share of the proceeds even though they bear little of the costs associated with it. They need to change the formula in a major way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz123
No they don't. The casinos make so much money it's hard to imagine. For years we've (me included) have said about Nevada casinos, "Let's don't kill the golden goose". But our casinos pay so little compared to places like Atlantic City it is ridiculous. They report hundreds of billions of dollars a year in the take, but the state is broke. It's time we stopped making excuses for them and make them pay a fairer share. I'm not big on overtaxing anyone, but another 1 or 2% wouldn't hurt them at all.
It didn't pass the first time because they weren't giving enough money to the horsemen so we all went against it. The second time they sweetened the pot and it passed.
There was also the churches that bussed their members to the polls to vote in opposition to the resolution the first time that never appeared the second time.
There was also the churches that bussed their members to the polls to vote in opposition to the resolution the first time that never appeared the second time.
We went to the (new) Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races yesterday to check it out. The table games opened last week and the place is being renovated and up-dated. It's looking really "glitzy" but, there is still a lot of work going on...in the meantime, the place was packed ! I'd hate to try to get in there on a weekend. They absolutely have it All now and once it's complete it should be a destination in the East for serious gambling. The impact on Jefferson County will be interesting to follow , not to mention the influx of people, traffic, and MONEY!
I imagine that perhaps Andy Dick might make a return trip to WV.
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