Florida warned on the dangers of casino resorts

The Orlando Sentinel did a recent piece on the comparisons of Atlantic City closing four casinos last year with the loss of 8,000 jobs, and the danger of allowing casino operators opening mega casino resorts in Florida, and as the US has 23 states that allow casinos, the newspaper states that the country is saturated and Florida could end up the same way Atlantic City is.

It is estimated that 40% of local restaurants and retail outlets will close just like in Atlantic City when resorts were built there 37 years ago.

An argument has brewed over the location of the casino resorts- should they be placed in locations where a local business community is thriving, hence damaging- and protesters say will destroy- those businesses. Also, they claim that more should be done to locate casino resorts in areas that have little or no local amenities or businesses, and thus creating more wealth by not ruining what already exists say protesters.

There is some reasoning behind the argument as both Las Vegas and the Mississippi Gulf Coast had virtually no commerce before the introduction of casinos and as such more business created rather than destroying what is already there.

Also, recent studies show that money gambled in a casino is money that won’t be spent in local restaurants and entertainment complexes or at any other local businesses.

It will be a battle for Florida, but should casino operators win and develop in Florida lessons should be learned from what has happened in Atlantic City and local governments should regulate the amount of resorts and locate them in areas that would benefit from the construction.