Are casinos nearing saturation? And is online gambling next?
August 3rd, 2012 at 1:12 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
When Rhode Islanders go to the polls in November, they’ll be asked for the second time in six years whether to allow casino gambling in the state. Surveys indicate they’re likely to say yes, clearing the way for Twin River and Newport Grand to become full-fledged casinos.
The New York Times’ Michael Cooper has an interesting article examining the gambling landscape up and down the East Coast, and raising questions about whether there’s enough demand to merit the industry’s continued expansion:
The rapid expansion of gambling, as recession-wracked states have searched for new sources of money, has transformed the industry. States that once enjoyed near-monopolies on gambling … have been suffering the most in the new casino-dotted national landscape. …
“The driving factor here is location,” said William R. Eadington, a professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno. “Other things being equal, people will choose the most accessible or convenient casino outlets. People who used to travel some distance no longer do.” …
The endless one-upmanship among states has some analysts wondering at what point the market will become saturated, and whether the industry has reached a point of diminishing returns. …
Some fiscal analysts wonder about the long-term benefits of casinos for state finances. “Gambling legalization and expansion during tough times produces significant short-term revenue increases in some jurisdictions,” a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government found last year. “But if experience is a guide, such growth will not continue over time.”
Cooper also notes a new law signed in Delaware last month that made it the first state to legalize Internet gambling, which the feds are now allowing. Rhode Island officials are open to online gambling, and Delaware reportedly wants to partner with Rhode Island and West Virginia on some sort of online poker offering.
Tags: casinos, gambling, newport grand, online gambling, twin river
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
If I want to go to gamble, I won’t gamble in Rhode Island, I go out to Nevada. I like everything else that goes along with the gambling. I want the buffets, the low cost rooms and use the area as a base, seeing various casinos and other sites.
All that casinos in Rhode Island will do is impovish people from Rhode Island. Nobody is going to come to Rhode Island for casinos and those that have to come to Rhode Island for other reasons will be well aware that much much better casinos are a short 45 minute drive away in Conn, and probably soon in Mass. This is just the typical stupid, sleazy Rhode Island shortcut that our bought and paid for GA and idiotic voters like to take to avoid making the kinds of tough decisions necessary to improve our economy.
[...] Are casinos nearing saturation? And is online gambling next?WPRI-TV 12 (blog)When Rhode Islanders go to the polls in November, they'll be asked for the second time in six years whether to allow casino gambling in the state. Surveys indicate they're likely to say yes, clearing the way for Twin River and Newport Grand to become …and more » [...]
tell them to go to another state for treatment