10/11/2019
I am concerned that the casino gaming expansion, that was started in Atlantic City, in 1978, is about to suffer a major setback, with the move by many states to approve casino gaming and sports betting online, meaning on your smart phone or computer.The Supreme Court's overturning PASPA, several years ago, was to allow Americans to bet on sports. That was a very popular decision; but I don't thing the Court and now State Legislators are considering the true ramifications of their rush to allow casino games and sports betting online, where children become a gambling issue. The United Kingdom has now announced 55,000 minors that have been diagnosed with a compulsive gambling problem, with an earlier study discovering that 30% of minors had bet on gaming in the last year. And now we are about to subject our children to more gaming opportunities, like loot boxes, that are now considered gaming in many jurisdictions.But a further look at how the U.S. and Europe differ in their gaming experiences, indicates that we have taken gaming from the U.K. betting shops, to our $billion destination casinos, multi million racinos and casino riverboats. With several states now allow bars and truck stops to offer Video Gaming Terminals; an example being the 7,000 locations, with 30,000 machines in Illinois.The State behind the push to eliminate PASPA, New Jersey; was trying to re-invigorate Atlantic City, which did add new revenue to AC operators, but only 15% of the sports betting win occurs in an AC casino, the rest online or at a North Jersey racetrack.So our rush to open online gaming and online sports betting, all around the country. will have a very detrimental impact on America's casino industry, costing many thousand industry jobs, and probably closing many live casino locations.However, there is a less obvious, but potentially more dangerous issue, that states should be considering; the likely negative impact to their Lottery revenues; supporting important issues, like education. Most lottery programs, earn 25% to over 40%, on their many games; but a careful analysis of sports betting, will show that the operator generally earns about 5% on sports bets made, so even a 10% tax would only return a half of one percent to the state. And the convenience of betting online, could easily reduce the visits to your favorite lottery purveyor.Since only allowing sports betting at live casinos, would make it more difficult for serious sports fans; states could consider betting parlors, like the U.K., with a minimum age of 18 or 21, that would offer much larger video screens, and booths, where a group could watch and listen to the same game. These sports betting parlors, with food and beverage service, could also add a small number of VGT's to add tax revenue, and a reason to visit, when there are no games being played. And with these sports parlors owned and operated by licenses existing casino companies. And you wouldn't need 7,000 locations, like Illinois, but parlors placed where most of the state's population is within 15 too 20 minutes from a sports betting parlor. If the pressure is so great to have sports on smart phones and computers, why not restrict them to bets on game outcomes only; leaving the proposition and in-game betting to licensed live casino or sports betting parlors.
