How Profitable is Legalized Gambling for States? Just Ask Pennsylvania
Did you know that Pennsylvania collected more in taxes from commercial casino gambling than any other state, including gambling heavyweight Nevada, The Allentown Call newspaper reported.
Pennsylvania’s tax revenue from commercial casinos approached $1.1 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30, The Morning Call of Allentown reported Monday.
Indiana was second with $878 million and Nevada third with $831 million.
Third? What’s going on here?
Well, now you know why cash-starved states are getting into the gambling business.
Pennsylvania has 9 casinos operating, but its 55 percent tax rate on slot machine gambling more than makes up for it.
Nevada takes 8 percent from its 260 casinos.
Pennsylvania’s casinos began offering table games this month. Those games are being taxed at a rate of 16 percent and are projected to bring the state $320 million more per year.
Looks like Ed Rendell (Gov.) knows what he is doing.
Sometimes.
Slot machine revenue has helped lower real estate taxes and helped prop up the state’s horse racing industry.
Its also helping pay for large civic projects like the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia and grants for volunteer fire companies.
So now we keep an eye out on Mass., the next state to go this route.
Interesting, huh?
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Posted on July 28, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Culture, News, stories
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Canadian Province B.C. Reaping Online Gambling Rewards
Here is a very intersting tidbit of information about Canada.
While Kentucky is foolishly fighting online gambling (how else but) by grabbing up domain names, over in British Columbia (where lies my all time favorite city, Vancouver), is enjoying mega success through legalized online gambling and is reaping enormous financial rewards.
Can the states be far behind? Can they afford NOT to do this? I’m telling you, it’s only a matter of time and the clock is ticking.
The British Columbia Lotter Corporation had launched its controversial online gambling site, PlayNow.com last week and was shut down by the initial spike of traffic.
It’s been an overwhelming success, said Michael Graydon, president of the BC Corporation.
“So we decided to close the site down for a half a day, add some new hardware and servers to the system to be able to accommodate it. We’re in the process of doing that. Our IT people are working very hard to get it up and running.”
The site is still offline today.
But it will include casino games, bingo, sports, lotteries and other games and is expected to generate about $100 million in revenue.
Did you read that U.S. legislators…$100 million in revnue. In Canada. Can you imagine what it would bring in here?
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Posted on July 19, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Culture, Events, Gambling, Games
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Good Times in River City (St. Louis), a Gambling Hot Spot
There are seven casinos in the St. Louis area, but only one is kicking ass at the moment, River City.
River City, according to a report in various media outlets, is bringing in the gamblers in astonishing numbers, helping to make the entire industry in the city profitable.
Of the seven casinos in the St. Louis area, six of them experienced decreases in revenue for June in comparison to the same month in 2009.
The total take for the seven is about $85.8 million, up from the $82.3 million from the same period a year earlier.
River City decreased from their May revenue figure of $15.2 million, but still clearly was better than most other St. Louis casinos with revenue of $13.3 million in June.
Guess they like to gamble more in K.C.
Ameristar Casino had the highest revenue of all casinos at $23.4 million. Harrah’s Casino revenue was down twelve percent, to $20.1 million.
Pinnacle finally closed the President Casino after year’s of battling with the Missouri Gaming Commission over the state of the riverboat casino. The figures for June at the President were even more disappointing because of flooding that had the casino closed for ten days. The total revenue for June was $618,476 at the President.
Pinnacle has other properties in St. Louis, and their relationship status with the Gaming Commission led them to agree to close the President.
Lumiere Place, which is one of the newest casinos in the city, brought inf $12.8 million, down from $14.7 million in June of 2009, a 13 percent decline.
Casino Queen and Argosy Alton casinos had two of the lowest revenue figures in the area. Casino Queen saw revenue drop twenty percent, from $12 million last June, to $9.6 million this year. Argosy Alton’s revenue only dropped one million, from $7 million to $6 million.
Now my take is that all of these casinos are first rate. I’d like some feedback from those who have visited any of the casinos. What do you think?
I admit that I’ve been ONLY to River City, mainly because of its reputation, so I can’t bust on the others.
But I’d sure like to find out why their numbers are down.
Of course, one reason could be their demographics, their location.
And the economy. Who has disposable income these days?
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Posted on July 14, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Gambling, Guide
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Get Up, Take a Walk, Have a Drink, as Way of Preventing Clots When Table Gambling for Long Periods of Time, Medical Researchers Suggest. [Are They Nuts?]
A friend, Abe, sent me an interesting cli from the New York Times, which I think is not just a fun angle on gambling moments…but kind of instructive.
There is a report coming out of China of a syndrome that might be caused by excessive table gambling. I know…hard to believe. Right?
Seems like the patient (unnamed), in a letter to the respected Lancet magazine, reported painful swelling in her left leg.
Blood tests showed deep vein thrombosis. In other words, a clot.
Good news is that she recovered.
Doctors researched her case. She had no family history of clots.
At 40, she did take birth control pills.
Ultimately doctors came up with this: the clot might have been caused by excessive mah jongg playing.
She had been playing the game for 8 hours, sitting at a table, motionless.
“Our patient’s condition is similar to economy class syndrome in its underlying pathophysiological mechanisms,” the doctor’s wrote.
“However, the mechanisms of mah-jongg-related D.V.T. could be complicated by stress (especially when it involves monetary bets) and sleep deprivation.”
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Posted on July 8, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Gambling, Games, News
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