Essay/Term paper: Casino

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Persuasive Essays

Casinos have become a large part of cities" economy and hundreds of thousands of
people"s lives. Casinos are exciting for many people who feel they have a chance to win
it big. Because so much money is flowing into casinos, the local business are being
affected. Most are not thriving with the new tourism and the seemingly revived economy.
In 1994 more people made the trip to a casino then to a ball park (Popkin). The casinos
are attracting so much of American"s dollars that they spent less on books, music albums
and attractions (Reed).
The people are spending less money outside of the casino. Which is not helping
the vast majority of local businesses. This is what is most often overlooked by the city.
The money from tourists and the community is not going into the local businesses, but
instead the casino. Robert Goodman, Urban Planning professor states: "Newly opened
casinos suck money out of the local economy, away from existing movie theaters, car
dealerships, clothing shops and sports arenas" (Popkin). Casinos take money away from
existing businesses. In Atlantic City, where casinos were supposed to save their failing
economy, over 900 of their 2,100 small businesses have closed and the number of
restaurants was reduced from 243 to 146. By providing everything a person needs, the
casinos are designed to keep people inside. The truth is casinos drain money out of an
area into a far away bank account, most often never going back into the community.
Casino revenues may look good on paper to the average person, and to politicians who are
constantly being pushed to gain more revenue. In reality they are almost a nightmare to
the small locally owned businesses. Jobs are one of the main reasons for the growth of
casinos.
Across the continent casinos have created tens of thousands of jobs for
unemployed people (Clines). Indian casinos in Minnesota have created approximately
5,000 jobs. Between 1975 and 1992 employment in Atlantic City"s service industry grew
608 percent, a significant part of this came from casinos which created 95 percent of the
new jobs. The casinos increased construction jobs ninety three percent, and created 600
new transportation jobs (Reed). Over all casinos provide many new jobs for an area.
Construction jobs decline when the casino is completed. The jobs will decline as demand
for their services drops off. During the same time period of 1975 to 1992 manufacturing
jobs were down eighty-four percent. Real estate, insurance, and financial employment fell
forty one percent (Reed). While some jobs increased others declined because of the shift
of demand for certain jobs. Casinos may help some jobs but harm others.
Even with casinos Atlantic City has the highest unemployment in New Jersey. A
reason for this is that the casino jobs went to people who moved in from 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 state"s unemployment, the state government should do a better job of giving the jobs
to people in the state. The jobs do not help the state"s unemployment if they hire workers
from out of state. This defeats one of the main reasons for building a casino. This is
having a visible economic impact on different people.