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Reasons to saying no to Casinos:
• Gambling is Often Legalized to Promote Economic Development of Depressed Areas. Miami is not a depressed area! Casinos only help those local economies in locations that were not big destination spots before, not where the area is well established.
• Casino interests have little to offer a state focused on family tourism.
• Casinos will take money from the local economy and won’t bring any, and definitely not to the residents. Money spent on a gambling facility is money that already existed but was spent on other things. Building and running a gambling facility doesn't create wealth, it merely transfers it. The benefit for a region is if the transfers are from outside of the region. In contrast, there is not a stimulus or net benefit if development of the casino leads to more money being spent outside of the region. Out of state entities may be retaining the earnings taking money out of the local economy;
• Casinos and Gambling Social costs (cost to residents) exceed benefits. When the research is not industry funded then the results are consistently obvious: In "Gambling In America: Costs and Benefits" (by one of the authors of this piece, Earl L. Grinols, Cambridge University Press, 2004) concludes that the reverse is true: Social costs typically exceed benefits, 3-to- 1. For every $1 of revenue generated by gambling, taxpayers must pay at least $3 in increased criminal justice costs, social welfare expenses, high regulatory costs,and increased infrastructure expenditures (John W. Kindt, Professor of Business Administration, University of Illinois).
• Casinos will take jobs from the local economy and will hurt local businesses. Building a casino creates new jobs, such as a card dealer, in the sense that they did not exist before. But they may not be new jobs for the economy. The success of gambling in Atlantic City, however, has done little to revitalize the rest of Atlantic City and its business community. Atlantic City has been described as two cities. One is the casinos and the other is a city of boarded-up buildings with a unemployed minority work force. Gambling has largely failed in achieving the objectives of job growth for local residents and city-wide economic development.;
• Building Casinos will dilute the value of real estate. (Professor Robert Goodman, "Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development");
• Casinos will bring a horde of desperate individuals, big crime, homeless, drunks and prostitution. "The availability of a casino within 50 miles (versus 50 to 250 miles) is associated with about double the prevalence of problem and pathological gamblers" and that "pathological and problem gamblers are more likely than other gamblers or nongamblers to have been on welfare, declared bankruptcy, and to have been arrested or incarcerated." (Dean Gerstein, et al., "Gambling Impact and Behavior Study," report to the commission, April 1, 1999);
• Casinos self imposed limitations won’t be honored. Localities report that the industry will pressure the communities to rewrite the rules for casinos once they are established. The casinos are trying to maximize profits as any business should, but this complaint does raise questions about the claims that are made by proponents prior to legalization. Examples of recent liberalizing moves are the extension of Atlantic City gambling hours on weekends at first and then on weekdays. Also, changes in Iowa regarding riverboat gambling rules are another example;
• Casinos will create an environment unfit for families and children. "They're taking money from their kids' college funds. I've seen cases of parents breaking into their kids' piggy banks so they can gamble." (Renee Wert, gambling addiction counselor, Hidden costs of gambling, 4/17/06).
o Effect of Gambling on Children: [url=http://www.pactoregon.org/facts-childeffects.html]Effect of Gambling on Children[/url]
o Child abuse and neglect caused by gambling: [url=http://www.pactoregon.org/facts-child.html]Child abuse and neglect caused by gambling[/url]
o Talking with Children about Gambling: www.ncrg.org/public_education/talking-with-children.cfm (broken link)
o Casino Watch – Children: [url=http://www.casinowatch.org/children_gambling/child_gamb_index.html]Casino Watch - Children[/url]
• Building Casinos would be the opposite of a cultural opportunity;
• Building a Casino will hurt the region:
o Local residents who used to go to restaurants now spend their money in the casino. Then the casino has no net economic benefit.
o Tourists who used to spend money on other activities within the region now go to a gambling facility within the region.
o Locally-owned businesses go bankrupt because consumers change their expenditures to casinos that happen to be owned by out-of-state interests.
o Casinos buy more products from out of state than the businesses they replace.
o Casinos result in increased social costs including police and other public services as well as the costs of pathological and problem gamblers.
• Giant Casino resorts in downtown Miami will adversely impact the smart growth and sustainable urban development of the city. Downtown giant Casinos will exacerbate traffic and ignore the need for better public transit.
In 1994, all of the various experts who testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business criticized the impacts that casino-style gambling activities inflict upon the criminal justice system, the social welfare, system, small businesses, and the economy (Congressional Hearing 1994). Utilizing legalized gambling activities as a strategy for economic development was thoroughly discredited during the hearing.
Florida is the only state which has conducted a comprehensive statewide analysis of the impacts of legalized gambling activities. Its report concurred with the congressional hearing's conclusions (Florida Budgeting Office 1994).
“Professor Robert Goodman, in his study entitled, "Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development", describes the effect of gambling on local business. He indicates that a study in South Dakota a year after legalizing video gambling in the state did "..show significant declines for selected activities such as clothing stores, recreation services, business services, auto dealers and service stations." Professor Goodman's report, further quotes Timothy Ryan, a University of New Orleans economist, who reported that a proposed casino in New Orleans , "..will direct over $62 million from all retail businesses, excluding hotels." He reported that in, "Atlantic City, homelessness increased after the introduction of casinos, while clothing stores and eating and drinking establishments declined. Only a few retail stores opened in the off-Boardwalk and downtown areas." He further stated, "Researchers calculated that the growth of crime in the Atlantic City region reduced property values by $24,000,000 for each easily accessible community to Atlantic City.." He points out that compulsive gambling is a major influence causing regional economic decline. His research, along with the research of Yaffee and Politzer show that compulsive gamblers drain regional economies of billions of dollars per year because of costly social programs and damage to existing businesses.” (from the New Mexico Coalition Against Legalized Gambling)
Gaming-based economies have been unsuccessful:
Case Study: Atlantic City. The success of gambling in Atlantic City has
done little to revitalize the city and its business community. Atlantic City is
often described as “two cities”: a city of casinos and a city of boarded-up
buildings with an unemployed minority workforce. Since 1977, the number of
restaurants in Atlantic City has dropped by 40%, mainly because locals and
visitors don’t have to venture far from the casino for dining options. (California State Library, California
Research Bureau)
Case Study: Mississippi. After the Legislature legalized gambling in Mississippi to promote the development of the Mississippi delta, crime
skyrocketed, and by some reports, most casino jobs went to workers from out of state. (“Mississippi Monte Carlo: Gambling Industry in Tunica County,” The Atlantic Monthly, January 1996) [url=http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/01/monte-carlo-mississippi/6245/]Monte Carlo, Mississippi - Magazine - The Atlantic[/url]
Case Study: Colorado. Three years after Colorado legalized limited stake casinos, residents were complaining of traffic, crime, noise and air pollution. One year later, 21 of 68 casinos had closed their doors and have since moved into bankruptcy. The growth of casinos and rising property taxes led to a decline in non-casino business. The City Manager of Central City, one of the cities with legal gaming was quoted as saying, “I’d tell anyone who was thinking of opening their community to casino gambling to have his head examined.” (California State Library, California Research Bureau)
“Reasons to saying no to Casinos:
• Gambling is Often Legalized to Promote Economic Development of Depressed Areas. Miami is not a depressed area! Casinos only help those local economies in locations that were not big destination spots before, not where the area is well established.”
Why does it matter? If someone wants to spend their money on gambling, that is their business, not yours.
“• Casino interests have little to offer a state focused on family tourism.”
Families have Disney and tons of other places to go to, not every square inch of the US needs to be devoted to families only. Plus, I bring my family to casinos now, so I do not see your reasoning in this.
“• Casinos will take money from the local economy and won’t bring any, and definitely not to the residents. Money spent on a gambling facility is money that already existed but was spent on other things. Building and running a gambling facility doesn't create wealth, it merely transfers it. The benefit for a region is if the transfers are from outside of the region. In contrast, there is not a stimulus or net benefit if development of the casino leads to more money being spent outside of the region. Out of state entities may be retaining the earnings taking money out of the local economy;”
A casino is part of the local economy, no different than Sears, Macy’s, Toyota, Publix, or any other business. And if you are worrying about transferring wealth, better hop on the made in China products before worrying about the casino, that and oil imports. You obviously never taken even a basic economics course because you have no idea what you are talking about.
“• Casinos will take jobs from the local economy and will hurt local businesses. Building a casino creates new jobs, such as a card dealer, in the sense that they did not exist before. But they may not be new jobs for the economy. The success of gambling in Atlantic City, however, has done little to revitalize the rest of Atlantic City and its business community. Atlantic City has been described as two cities. One is the casinos and the other is a city of boarded-up buildings with a unemployed minority work force. Gambling has largely failed in achieving the objectives of job growth for local residents and city-wide economic development.;”
So this means I should not be allowed to open a business because I might “take jobs”?
“• Building Casinos will dilute the value of real estate. (Professor Robert Goodman, "Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development");”
So do factories, we should ban them? The homeless walking around and the ghetto rats from the neighboring areas also devalue real estate.
“• Casinos will bring a horde of desperate individuals, big crime, homeless, drunks and prostitution. "The availability of a casino within 50 miles (versus 50 to 250 miles) is associated with about double the prevalence of problem and pathological gamblers" and that "pathological and problem gamblers are more likely than other gamblers or nongamblers to have been on welfare, declared bankruptcy, and to have been arrested or incarcerated." (Dean Gerstein, et al., "Gambling Impact and Behavior Study," report to the commission, April 1, 1999);”
Sorry, I am not here to legislate personal responsibility. If someone cannot control their gambling, that is their problem. I should not be denied access to gamble just because some idiot cannot control themselves. There are people that eat too much as well; I should have the gov restrict my diet? Prostitutes, drunks, ect, are already all over the darn place, some just do not call themselves that. And really, who cares about prostitution, the act of receiving money is illegal, but giving it for free is not, makes no sense.
“• Casinos self imposed limitations won’t be honored. Localities report that the industry will pressure the communities to rewrite the rules for casinos once they are established. The casinos are trying to maximize profits as any business should, but this complaint does raise questions about the claims that are made by proponents prior to legalization. Examples of recent liberalizing moves are the extension of Atlantic City gambling hours on weekends at first and then on weekdays. Also, changes in Iowa regarding riverboat gambling rules are another example;”
All large businesses do this along with corrupt politicians, I guess you have not paid attention to the marlins stadium deal? Amongst many others. And if the business wants to be opennnn 24/7, or what ever time they want, THAT IS THEIR BUSINESS! NOT THE GOVERNMENT’S BUSINESS TO DECIDE WHAT THE OPERATING HOURS ARE!
“• Casinos will create an environment unfit for families and children. "They're taking money from their kids' college funds. I've seen cases of parents breaking into their kids' piggy banks so they can gamble." (Renee Wert, gambling addiction counselor, Hidden costs of gambling, 4/17/06).”
I could care less about families or kids; they have Disney and millions of other places. But in light of that, I take my family to the casino already, so I do not see your point about this.
“• Building Casinos would be the opposite of a cultural opportunity;”
Talk about a baseless subjective statement.
“• Building a Casino will hurt the region:
o Local residents who used to go to restaurants now spend their money in the casino. Then the casino has no net economic benefit.
o Tourists who used to spend money on other activities within the region now go to a gambling facility within the region.
o Locally-owned businesses go bankrupt because consumers change their expenditures to casinos that happen to be owned by out-of-state interests.
o Casinos buy more products from out of state than the businesses they replace.
o Casinos result in increased social costs including police and other public services as well as the costs of pathological and problem gamblers.”
IT IS THEIR MONEY TO SPEND!!! Who in the heck are you to dictate where and how someone spends their money?
“• Giant Casino resorts in downtown Miami will adversely impact the smart growth and sustainable urban development of the city. Downtown giant Casinos will exacerbate traffic and ignore the need for better public transit.”
Downtown is a dump, anything would be an improvement. The Heat games also create a traffic nightmare, as does any Bayside event.
The rest of your post is utter garbage. You are just some prudish puritan that dislikes the “sin” of gambling, and you think you have some exclusive right to dictate to other what they can do with their money.
I went to Las Vegas when I was 7 years old with my family, went to Nassau/Atlantis every year, Cruise ships had casinos too. I turned out fine. I hate the argument of people will become gamblers etc.. Well that is their problem. It is not the governments job to babby sit everyone and say things like on no, we can't have casinos because people will be dumb and gamble their money away.
Btw anything about an argument like that is pointless anyway if people have still not figured it out South Florida has two pretty large casinos in the area and many other paramutual casinos, Poker, Horse Racing, Slots etc.. So if someone is going to gamble already and lose their children college funds than it already has happened. Everyone does know Florida is already the 4th largest gambling sate in the country right? Why only let the Native American tribes be the only ones.
The political climate in Florida is generally oppossed to big time casinos-----especially drawing a line north of Orlando the opposition to casinos is immense.
If Florida had carefully crafted a viable plan for the casino business back in the 60s and 70s this area would have knocked off Atlantic City as the place on the east coast.
Casino liscensing could have been restricted to Miami Dade and Broward counties----under strict supervision and contol it could have been a huge profit city down here and become a huge employer.
The opposition to casinos down here is mainly in the form that it attracts corruption, fraud, and crime.
South Florida lost a wonderful opportunity to become a mecca for casinos-----it will never, despite the recent efforts to relaunch casino building down here, become a gambling haven----too much opposition in Florida.
I agree Fly, I remember going Reno and Vegas as a child, and had a great time. I used to be against having gambling here, but then when I looked into it more. Most of the things people list (like above) to be against gambling are not true. I just went to Vegas a few months ago, lots of families there having a great time. If South Beach allows/gets Wynn to build a highend hotel casino here this will bring lots of tourists from the east coast. South Beach is already known as a party city, its not know as the Hamptons. So adding gabling as long as it is high end would be a good thing.
If South Beach allows/gets Wynn to build a highend hotel casino here this will bring lots of tourists from the east coast. South Beach is already known as a party city, its not know as the Hamptons. So adding gabling as long as it is high end would be a good thing.
Why would you want it to go in South Beach which is already a GREAT place? The casinos should be built to improve areas that are currently blighted.
As long as these places are more on the higher end they should be allowed. All this stuff about crime is ridiculous. Lets also remember people that the Casinos in Miami will NOT have sports betting. When you think of people gambling their kids college funds I think of the 45 year old man putting money on the Clippers to cover the spread against the Heat. Will the casinos creat some problems sure of course they will. Traffic is something which will probably get worse, maybe crime a little bit with the extra people but nothing that I see will be a huge negative. This family stuff is garbage, if a parent takes the kid to the casino to gamble or something they are probably bad parents anyway.
Positives: More tourist means more money, more jobs, more taxes the tourist are paying. And also more places for us locals to go to.
Really? If you think locals are going to be welcomed to any of the three mega resorts, I've got a bridge to sell you. LOL!!
Not saying I would plan to go often, probably be over priced. But for example the Genting resort downtown with 50 places to eat and a mall right in downtown? Probably have some clubs and bars too. Why in the world would they not want locals to come?
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If you think locals are going to be welcomed to any of the three mega resorts, I've got a bridge to sell you. LOL!! 
