Should Massachusetts ban casinos? (Boston, Everett: real estate, apartments, crimes)

[Bettafish]

I went to Boston encore casino during the holidays. It was very crowded, and all blackjack tables were full, although they have not brought back poker due to the pandemic.
They have very "bad" rules for customers. For example, even $50 blackjack tables can have 6:5 blackjack paid ratio (3:2 in most major casinos), and the dealer hits on soft 17 etc. Eventually I lost about one week's after-tax wage. It didn't feel very good but was ok, because it was expected. I will not go there in the near future.

However, when I talked to other people on the tables, I saw many people deeply harmed by Boston encore.

• One mid-aged black lady said she lost over a thousand in just a few hours. She does not look like a rich person, and was obviously annoyed by the loss. Probably it is not her first time, and won't be the last time.
• A young guy said he lost over 2k in just one afternoon. He lives in Everett so it is very difficult for him to avoid the casino. He used to go to the gym on weekends but now all time is wasted in the casino.
• Another black girl said she lost 5k in two days, but was still playing.
• An Asian man played very big, and probably lost over 5k in just 10 minutes.
• An Indian man lost 4k that night on roulette, and then started to play blackjack with multi-hundred bets.
• Many college students came to play too, probably with their parents' money. (I saw at least two Harvard students.) Often times they didn't even know the basic strategy of blackjack, and just hit or stay randomly. Needless to say the vast majority of them left with empty hands.

...

Lots of people's lives are obviously negatively affected by the Casino, and many families are ruined. Most victims are not really rich people, and I can imagine the rise of crimes as a result....
Yes, you can always argue those people are weak, lacking self-discipline etc. However, I consider myself a relatively self-disciplined person, and I also feel once you are there, it is very difficult to control the impulse to chase the loss, or to continue the "victory". If we blame both drug dealers and drug consumers, we should blame both casinos and gamblers too.

Also, this is one of the few big Casinos built in the urban area of a major city in this country. Ordinary people do not go to Vegas or Atlantic City regularly, but many people have an easy access to this casino.

[mdovell]

Every Casino in Massachusetts does have gambling addiction Services there and people can actually asked if they excluded out. It's called self-exclusion and you can live with yourself if you think you'll have a problem with gambling.

If you close down the casinos you going to lay off a lot of people and a lot of suppliers are going to get pretty ticked off and then you're going to be left with buildings for what exactly. If you converted win two apartments I'm sure you're going to get real estate agents free ticked off because as those go on the market the price of housing will drop.

I'm well aware that people can lose money at a casino I saw somebody go through about $2,100 and video Roulette in about 45 minutes. A game can last as little as 15 seconds and he was putting down probably at least $75 at a time. The way that machine's really get to you is this. What you bet will you gamble is gone okay what you win is not winning unless you subtract how much you bet. In other words and this might sound really stupid but if you don't have more money in credit it than what you started you are losing.

Gambling did not start with casinos. The irony of some of this is that the state lottery system was started decades if not a generation ago. In my upstairs attic I found a suitcase filled with Massachusetts state lottery tickets from the early 1970s. Apparently the former owner must have spent literally hundreds of dollars back then which is much more today and I think all the tickets are losing tickets or obviously have expired.

Having things that go up and down in value is nothing new I've got multiple degrees a house a car and Investments I know what can go up and I know what can go down and I've got tolerance within those percentages. The number of months ago I heard about a young man that committed suicide because he thought he lost more money in the stock market then he really did. If you don't know how to read financial statements
sometimes you might not always fully understand how much you paid for that investment.

I understand what you're saying but at the same point I kind of grew up with more of a skeptical eye on things. I grew up reading consumer reports and zillions when I was a kid and then there was the HBO series by me then. I tend to mute commercials on TV. The last I checked breakfast cereal doesn't come with a Bluetooth speaker!

[WestieWhitie]

So you’re pis*ed off you lost some money and now you want to have all casinos banned? You must be fun at parties!

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

So you’re pis*ed off you lost some money and now you want to have all casinos banned?

^ Exactly.

[BostonMike7]

No ban

[CaseyB]

Too late, the horse is out of the barn.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

I went to Boston encore casino during the holidays. It was very crowded, and all blackjack tables were full, although they have not brought back poker due to the pandemic.
They have very "bad" rules for customers. For example, even $50 blackjack tables can have 6:5 blackjack paid ratio (3:2 in most major casinos), and the dealer hits on soft 17 etc. Eventually I lost about one week's after-tax wage. It didn't feel very good but was ok, because it was expected. I will not go there in the near future.

However, when I talked to other people on the tables, I saw many people deeply harmed by Boston encore.

If the problem is just with the gambling rules, couldn't you just lobby to fix the rules rather than banning casinos entirely?

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

So you’re pis*ed off you lost some money and now you want to have all casinos banned? You must be fun at parties!

Did you even read my post?

No. Obviously it is not my first time to be in a casino and lose money, but this casino is built in a place where many residents have easy access. Poor people in Boston rarely travel to Vegas or even Mohegan Sun, but they can easily go to Boston encore.

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by lrfox

If the problem is just with the gambling rules, couldn't you just lobby to fix the rules rather than banning casinos entirely?

My point is, casinos do more harm than good, especially when you build them in big cities.
Most countries in the world ban casinos for good reasons.

[OutdoorLover]

I voted against the casino referendum back when it was put to the voters. Don't consider them a positive business so not a fan. Once they are built though, it's a lot harder to roll that decision back. I think we need to live with them for now anyways.