Casinos Essay Example For Students

Casinos Essay CasinosCasinos have become a large part of cities economy and hundreds ofthousands of peoples lives. Casinos are exciting for many people who feel theyhave a chance to win it big. Because so much money is flowing into casinos, thelocal business are being affected. Most are not thriving with the new tourismand the seemingly revived economy. In 1994 more people made the trip to a casinothen to a ball park (Popkin). The casinos are attracting so much of Americansdollars that they spent less on books, music albums and attractions (Reed). The people are spending less money outside of the casino. Which is nothelping the vast majority of local businesses. This is what is most oftenoverlooked by the city. The money from tourists and the community is not goinginto the local businesses, but instead the casino. Robert Goodman, UrbanPlanning professor states: Newly opened casinos suck money out of the localeconomy, away from existing movie theaters, car dealerships, clothing shops andsports arenas (Popkin). Casinos take money away from existing businesses. InAtlantic City, where casinos were supposed to save their failing economy, over900 of their 2,100 small businesses have closed and the number of restaurantswas reduced from 243 to 146. By providing everything a person needs, thecasinos are designed to keep people inside. The truth is casinos drain moneyout of an area into a far away bank account, most often never going back intothe community. Casino revenues may look good on paper to the average person, andto politicians who are constantly being pushed to gain more revenue. In realitythey are almost a nightmare to the small locally owned businesses. Jobs are oneof the main reasons for the growth of casinos. Across the continent casinos have created tens of thousands of jobs forunemployed people (Clines). Indian casinos in Minnesota have createdapproximately 5,000 jobs. Between 1975 and 1992 employment in Atlantic Citysservice industry grew 608 percent, a significant part of this came from casinoswhich created 95 percent of the new jobs. The casinos increased constructionjobs ninety three percent, and created 600 new transportation jobs (Reed). Overall casinos provide many new jobs for an area. Construction jobs decline whenthe casino is completed. The jobs will decline as demand for their servicesdrops off. During the same time period of 1975 to 1992 manufacturing jobs weredown eighty-four percent. Real estate, insurance, and financial employment fellforty one percent (Reed). While some jobs increased others declined because ofthe shift of demand for certain jobs. Casinos may help some jobs but harmothers. Even with casinos Atlantic City has the highest unemployment in NewJersey. A reason for this is that the casino jobs went to people who moved infrom out of state, not to the people the casino was built to help (Reed). Casinos create many new jobs and opportunities for the people around the area. If the jobs are supposed to be there to help the states unemployment, the stategovernment should do a better job of giving the jobs to people in the state. The jobs do not help the states unemployment if they hire workers from out ofstate. This defeats one of the main reasons for building a casino. This ishaving a visible economic impact on different people.