Guest Column: Atlantic City Symbolizes the Folly of Betting on Gambling – No Casinos

Guest Column: Atlantic City Symbolizes the Folly of Betting on Gambling

Guest column, written by No Casinos President John Sowinski, appearing in October 10, 2014 Florida Times-Union. To read the guest column on their website click here

 

FL Times Union

 

Guest column: Atlantic City symbolizes the folly of betting on gambling

Yet another house of cards is set to topple in Atlantic City. The Trump Taj Mahal casino is set to close in November, joining four others that have closed their doors this year, including the Trump Plaza.

The Great Recession may be winding down across most of America. But in Atlantic City, it is just getting started.

Businesses are closing. Mass layoffs are fueling double-digit unemployment. The poverty rate is almost 30 percent. The crime rate is six times the statewide average. For Sale signs are popping up in neighborhoods as residents abandon ship.

Welcome to the city that bet on casinos and rolled snake eyes. It is a story relevant to Florida as gambling interests continue trying to expand here, including an effort to build the world’s largest casino.

BAD SALES PITCH WORKED

The sales pitch hasn’t changed since New Jersey voters bought it in a 1976 referendum that opened up gambling on the boardwalk. Casinos spread up and down the shoreline.

And then they spread into neighboring states that didn’t appreciate their residents crossing the border to pay sin taxes in New Jersey.

Soon the gamblers couldn’t lose enough to sustain them all. Revenues plunged as cannibalization increased.

In its desperation, Atlantic City decided the solution to a glut of casinos was yet one more casino, the Revel Casino Hotel. It would be a $2.4 billion luxury resort of such epic proportions that it would attract enough high rollers to blow enough big wads to save a city.

Morgan Stanley bought in and then backed out, losing $1 billion. Gov. Chris Christie didn’t take the hint and threw in a $261 million tax-increment financing deal to revive stalled construction.

The first cards were dealt in April 2012.

“The completion of Revel and its opening is a turning point for Atlantic City and a clear sign that people once again have faith in the city’s ability to come back and be successful,” Christie proclaimed.

BAD EXAMPLE FOR FLORIDA

Less than a year after opening, it filed for bankruptcy. The doors closed Sept. 1 after buyers didn’t show at the fire sale.

The Revel is now a spectacular empty shell.

With the other failures and the Trump Taj Mahal’s impending closure, that will mean an estimated 11,000 people without jobs and a local government without revenue.

Some New Jersey politicians and business leaders may have something worse in mind. They want even more casinos, this time at the Meadowland Sports Complex in East Rutherford.

That would only increase the cannibalization of the boardwalk.

The Northeast now is so saturated with casinos that, according to The New York Times, half the residents live within 25 miles of one.

Moody’s Investor Services downgraded the U.S. gaming industry outlook to negative in June. And still there are politicians who can’t resist the siren call of the casino barkers.

Why would we embrace this insanity in Florida?

Casinos are economic parasites that not only are killing their host body in Atlantic City but each other as well.

Gambling won’t add anything to Florida.

It only will feed on what already is here.

John Sowinski, a native of Fort Pierce, is president of NoCasinos.org, Orlando.