That’s right!
I guess u must be really choked up that many foreign companies hold American bonds.
lol, do You know how much of the american public debt is in bonds to other sovereign nations?
for that matter, how much is held by foreign citizens…
I know i have a couple bucks worth of savings bonds.
Niagara falls isnt really directly benefitting from the casino that much because in their agreement they only negotiated like a 2% profit from slot machines only. I think buffalo got a better deal so they should see more money but its still not gonna be a solution too all the city’s woes and again bass pro is definitely not the answer either.
I dont like how indians get everything free and dont have to pay taxes on anything they do buy. What gives them special rights?
r u serious? were u sleeping in History class?
Some parts of a research paper I wrote a few years back
Although some leaders in the Buffalo area look to a gambling casino operated by the Seneca Nation as a cure for our community’s financial woes, a casino is not likely to be the answer to our problems. In fact, a casino may create some problems of its own. A closer look at some of the economic and social effects of a casino is required.
Local casino proponents argue that a casino will benefit the local economy, boosting business, tourism, and jobs. They are not the first to think this. Starting with Atlantic City in 1978, casinos have been welcomed by many desperate city and state politicians as the solutions to job losses and failing local economies. We can learn from looking at the experiences of other communities across the country that have built casinos and by examining their results, and by considering some of the studies done on the effects of gambling casinos on their communities.
In the 1970’s, Atlantic City, New Jersey, was a city facing economic troubles. Once a thriving seaside resort, Atlantic City had faded as a tourist destination. City and state planners looked to legalized casino gambling as the solution to the problem. The New Jersey Casino Control Act described casino gambling as “a unique tool of urban redevelopment for Atlantic City” (Goodman, 19). The casinos were expected to create new jobs for unemployed local residents and to bring tourists and new customers to the city’s declining restaurants, retail stores, and other businesses.
The economic revival never happened. Four years after the introduction of casinos in Atlantic City, about a third of the city’s retail businesses had closed (Goodman, 23). The city’s Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce has said that in relation to the profits being made by the casinos themselves, the area has “not seen any great spillover effect on the retail market” (Goodman, 21.) While Atlantic City became a casino gambling center, the businesses and hotels that at one time catered to the beach visitors lost even more customers. Casino visitors did not patronize the restaurants, shops, and attractions that previous summer resort visitors patronized (Goodman, 21). Over a ten year period, forty percent of Atlantic City’s independent (non-casino related) restaurants closed (Goodman, 22). In 1990, ninety-eight percent of the Atlantic City casino gamblers arrived by car or bus and stayed in the city an average of six hours, mostly inside the casinos (Goodman, 19). The relatively small numbers of tourists from outside of the area frequently stayed at casino-owned hotels. The year before casinos were introduced, Atlantic City’s unemployment rate was thirty percent higher than the state average. Nearly ten years later, it had grown to fifty percent higher than the state average (Goodman, 23).
In 1989, gambling was legalized by the South Dakota legislature (Thompson, 102). Over eighty casinos were built in the old gold-mining town of Deadwood. Two years later, a University of South Dakota research report stated that the rate of growth for many local businesses declined, including clothing stores, business and recreation services, auto dealers, and service stations (Goodman, 31).
In 1991, the state of Illinois saw legalized gambling on riverboat casinos as a way to increase business and to create jobs in older industrial cities where industries had downsized or shut down completely (Goodman, 16). In Joliet, Illinois, when the first riverboat casinos opened in 1992, the city manager predicted that “gambling will start a rebirth of Joliet’s center. It will save us five years in developing our downtown” (Goodman, 28). Joliet, being the riverboat casino city closest to Chicago, was thought to be most likely to gain new business from the casino. The city anticipated a boost for its
businesses, many new tourists, and the building of a new hotel downtown (Goodman, 29), bring with it construction jobs.
Again, it didn’t happen. The only new downtown business to open was a small take-out coffee shop. There was no increase in drinking and eating sales taxes or general merchandise sales taxes (Goodman, 28). In 1994, the Illinois Better Government Association surveyed over three hundred businesses near riverboat casinos throughout the state. Fifty-one percent reported no increase in sales from gambling-related customers, and twelve percent actually reported a decline in sales (Williams, 83). Instead of a rush of tourists, the city of Joliet had a stream of gamblers taking day-trips who stayed at the casinos and then left. According to gambling companies, seventy-five percent of their customers came from within fifty miles of Joliet (Goodman, 28). No new hotel was built.
There were no new construction jobs downtown. In 1994, the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission published a report on the effect of the riverboat casinos that found little net economic development benefits to the cities and counties hosting them (Goodman, 28). A 1995 Illinois study weighed all of the positive and negative economic effects of casino gambling, and showed a total negative net impact of almost three million dollars (Frey, 80).
Closer to home, New York State’s first Indian-owned casino, the Turning Stone Casino Resort, opened in Verona in 1993. The casino is operated by the Oneida Nation. In the past five years, customers have spent nearly one billion dollars at the casino, but local businesses have not benefited and there have been virtually no spin-off businesses (Coin). Local taxes have actually increased as a result of the casino’s success. Using the casino’s profits, the Oneidas have bought sixteen-thousand acres of land and have opened twelve gas stations causing the local counties to lose millions of dollars in taxes that the Oneida Nation does not pay each year (Coin).
There are reasons why the effect of gambling casinos on their communities is not more positive. Increases in gambling profits come at the expense of other segments of the economy (Frey, 105). This is often referred to in studies as the cannibalization effect of gambling. Instead of bringing new wealth to the community, gambling enterprises cannibalize the local economy. People have a limited amount of discretionary money – money that is not needed for necessities that can be spent as you wish. As local residents shift more of their discretionary money to gambling, less money is available to be spent at other businesses (Goodman, 27). The University of South Dakota Deadwood study referred to this as the “substitution effect,” in which spending on gambling had been substituted for other spending (Goodman, 31). Time and money spent in gambling casinos are time and money not spent attending movies, amusement parks, museums, sporting events and concerts, or in restaurants or stores. As the profits of the non-gambling businesses decline, sales clerks, restaurant employees, and others work fewer hours or are laid-off. They then have less money themselves to spend on other local products and services, which, in a snowball effect, reduces the need for workers in other local businesses (Goodman, 27).
The National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago looked at one hundred communities near casinos from 1980 to 1997 and found that revenue gains to a casino, its hotels, and restaurants correspond to loss of revenues to local restaurants (Thompson, 61). Also, it is difficult for local restaurants and hotels to compete with the casinos because very often casinos offer complimentary or low-cost food, beverages, and rooms in order to keep players inside as long as possible (Frey, 78). According to James Hill, a Central Michigan University professor who has studied the impact of casinos on local communities, “The goal of a casino isn’t to stimulate the local economy. The goal is to get the people there and keep them there as long as possible and get them to spend as much money as possible” (Coin). Atlantic City casinos subsidize hundreds of millions of dollars of food and drinks each year (Goodman, 22).
As gambling grows, not only do local businesses lose purchases, but governments lose sales taxes they would have received from those purchases. They also lose the money that the new casinos take away from pre-existing gambling operations, such as state lotteries (Goodman, 27).
In regard to gambling casinos creating new jobs, a 1994 study by economist Earl L. Grinols found that the job creation benefits promised by the Illinois riverboat casinos never materialized. He found that while there were many new jobs at the casinos, a substantial number of existing jobs were lost elsewhere as a result of the casinos, so that the net job growth was close to zero (Goodman, 30). Grinols concluded that “the net effect of gambling was that roughly one job was lost for each gambling job created” (Williams, 83). Studies in other gambling regions have shown similar findings. In addition, the majority of casino jobs created are low-wage, high-turnover positions (Frey, 104).
Increased tourism with its economic benefits is often promised along with a gambling casino, but does not often result. The experiences of cities such as Atlantic City and Joliet bear this out. A 1995 Illinois study found that most of the new gambling casinos failed to attract a substantial number of tourists to their local areas (Frey, 76-78).
The impact of spending by non-local visitors on non-casino business is likely to be small if the casino targets mainly local people and people on day-trips from nearby areas (Frey, 78). Concentrating casinos in one specific area rather than establishing several scattered casinos in different areas creates competition between the casinos and attracts more tourists form outside of the area to gamble (Frey, 83). This would seem to make it more sensible for another casino to open in the Niagara Falls area, where two casinos already exist, and which is already a tourist destination, rather than the Buffalo area.
There are also the social effects of gambling casinos to consider. These include problem gambling and related issues, and increase in crime, and problems specific to Indian-run casinos.
Studies show that as gambling becomes more available and convenient, the incidence of problem and compulsive gambling increases (Frey, 80-82). According to the New York State Council on Problem Gaming, the rate of pathological gamblers in a fifty-mile radius doubles when a casino opens (Coin). Problem gambling in a community continues to go up the longer it is available (Goodman, 47). Compulsive gamblers not only cause tremendous stress for their families, but also hurt their employers and cost everyone money. Between sixty-nine and seventy-six percent of problem gamblers state they have missed time from work due to gambling, and between twenty-one and thirty-six percent of gamblers in treatment of Gamblers Anonymous have lost a job due to gambling (Frey, 156). Up to twenty-eight percent of gamblers in treatment or Gamblers Anonymous have declared bankruptcy (Frey, 155), thereby causing untold numbers of people or businesses to lose money owed to them. In the two years after the casinos opened in South Dakota, researchers reported a significant increase in bankruptcy filings (Goodman, 49).
Related social troubles come with problem gambling. During the two years following the casino openings in South Dakota, the state’s yearly divorce filings jumped five-hundred percent over the rate in the three years before the casinos (Goodman, 49). In 1994, the State’s Attorney for Deadwood presented statistics to a congressional committee showing increased numbers of child abuse and neglect cases seen by his office related to the casinos (Goodman, 53). The total social costs for each problem gambler have been estimated at between twelve and fifty thousand dollars (Frey, 104).
An increase in crime is also related to the opening of a casino. Studies show that there is a relationship between certain types of crime and gambling activity (Frey, 80). Casinos present criminals with opportunities. Gamblers carrying cash attract robbers and pickpockets. Gamblers are also good targets for prostitutes and people selling illegal goods such as drugs (Thompson, 64). In Atlantic City, there was a near tripling of crime in just three years following the opening of its first casino (Goodman, 23). There was also a “spillover” of crime from Atlantic City to other parts of the region. In a 1996 Wisconsin study, the presence of a casino in a county explained an increase of almost seven percent in the major crime rate beyond what would be experienced with no casino (Frey, 80). In 1999, about thirteen-hundred crime or traffic accident calls to the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department were related to the Turning Stone Casino (Coin). The American Insurance Institute estimated that forty percent of all white-collar crime stemmed from gambling (Goodman, 50). Compulsive gambling leads to illegal activities.
After problem gamblers use up their savings, credit cards, and other resources, they are likely to use loan sharks, forge of bounce checks, and embezzle (Frey, 157). The illegal activities put a strain on police departments, courts, and prison systems. A 1995 study of the economic impact of the state of Wisconsin’s seventeen tribal casinos estimated that when the costs of compulsive gambling, such as increased welfare, embezzlement, lost work productivity, and criminal activities were considered, the casinos cost the state between three-hundred and five-hundred million dollars per year (Goodman, 31).
Finally, there are also problems specific to Indian-operated gambling casinos. Once the acquisition of casino land by an Indian tribe is approved by the federal government, the property gains a status equivalent to reservation land (Goodman, 116). It is a sovereign nation exempt from state and local laws and taxation. The tribe can also do anything they want with the property in addition to the casino with no public hearing or zoning board. The property is also exempt from most federal regulations, such as those relating to discrimination, equal employment opportunities, and sexual harassment (Frey, 92). This loss of control over the property must be carefully considered before land is transferred to a tribe, especially if the land is in a location vital to the region. There are also concerns within a tribe itself to take into account. Some tribal members fear that the loss of traditional Indian values may come with a casino. Gerald Thompson, an Oneida who opposed his tribe’s casino, said “It’s been proven that there is an increase of family breakdown, domestic violence, and child abuse when people gamble. Is the money worth the devastation that could happen to our people?” (Goodman, 119) Without question, the tribes profit financially from casinos, but that same success can also lead to problems with the tribe. Since opening the Mystic Lake Casino in 1992, one hundred-fifty members of the Prior Lake Skakopee Mdewakanton Dakota tribe have become millionaires. However, because of this success, dozens of people with questionable claims are fighting for tribal membership. This has led to disputes over who is entitled to control the tribe’s gambling operation (Frey, 104). The presence of high-stakes gambling has also aggravated existing conflicts within other Native American communities.
In conclusion, after studying the economic and social effects of gambling casinos on some of the communities that have already built casinos, it is clear that we should carefully reconsider building a gambling casino here in the Buffalo area. What we should learn from the experiences of other cities is that a new gambling casino is not a good bet to create a better, more prosperous future for our community.
WORKS CITED
Coin, Glenn. “Odds Favor Turning Stone’s Prosperity; Casino’s Impact on Surrounding Area is Still a Matter of Much Debate.” Post-Standard 24 July 2003: A1. 22 Mar. 2005<http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news 4/1059041717311070.xml
Frey, James H. Gambling: Socioeconomic Impacts and Public Policy. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Periodicals Press, 1998.
Goodman, Robert. The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America’s Gambling Explosion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Thompson, William N. Legalized Gambling: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 1997.
Williams, Mary E. Legalized Gambling. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999.
Maybe it’s me, but I can’t find the sarcasm in that post…
a long read but it definetly gives you an idea on the situation
i agree…and i was stating the best possible outcome…its just a hope that puttign somethign worth while there will start a trend…Buffalo did get a way better deal on profits…no one can guarentee that a casino will brign more business…but if it business is gonna move there y not it be a casino where the senecas pay for everythign doesnt cost the city a thing and intern we still make money off of it…
TCM with the longest post yet… :lol:
Is it gone yet?
Rockefeller center may be owned by a Japanese company but the soil is still US land. Selling buildings and property to foreign corporations does not make their buildings and property foreign land.
10:42AM. There is a crane. NO swingeth of the ball just yet.
your absolutely right.
a casino is not the answer for this areas economy, if anything it will hurt us even worse down the road.
What i would like to see is a privately owned casino which we can collect taxes on, now that would be a much better situation for everyone but that wont ahppen anytime soon.
You are just concerned about losing square footage of American property?
If you had a concern about money from foreign interests in the US going to the foreign countries then you might have a point.
Indian land isn’t considered foreign land neways
Well you have obviously done your research on what is NOT the answer.
So please indulge us with your idea for what IS the answer.
EDIT: …and I will give you the reason why Buffalo will fuck it up.
People respond to incentives. Until the Guvment starts givin incentives to the people, that may help boost the economy
if u have access to camera take pics please