Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio

"Was happy to see in the Columbus Dispatch that the gambling profits had been lower than hoped for at the Hollywood Casino. Apparently, Columbus' reputation as a fat city is helping their restaurants turn a profit which balances the gambling losses.

Gambling destroys a lot of lives, and keeps money from creating good. It is a tax on the poor and low income, who disproportionately get sucked in (the rich have the stock market for gambling). Churches, liberal and conservative, mainline and fundamentalist, fought this for years. They are the ones who get to pick up the pieces. http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/10/25/columbus-prostitution-arrests-made.html"

Hollywood Casino, Columbus, Ohio

Our new casino in Columbus opened a month ago and has sucked about $18.3 million in profits from local gamblers. Table: $28,472,059; Slot:$136,648,985. I guess voters aren't the only ones attracted to "free stuff," but it's wildly expensive to get it this way. Gamblers' Anonymous meetings must be packed.

http://casinocontrol.ohio.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ajrbvarBPiA%3d&tabid=101

If taxpayers question subsidizing casino tribes' gaming interests

they are called racists and hate groups. Indian casino gaming is expanding across the nation, including new sites in urban areas driven by "landless or rural area tribes shopping for land in or near cities that can be put into trust and used to site huge new casinos." Stop urban casinos

"Bottom Line: The American taxpayer and the growing number of disenrolled tribal members have become collateral damage to our government in a disastrous experiment that began with a train called the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) and given “run away status” when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was passed in 1988. Promoting inequality and separatism through granting gambling monopolies and allowing tens of thousands of acres to be placed into federal trust status to expand “sovereign” tribal territories within our borders because of past persecution is misguided at best and at worst will undue the constitutional protections secured to all people, tribal and non-tribal." Story here at Capitol Weekly

Gambling as easy money for the state is always a false promise whether it's in Mississippi on floating cruise ships or California eating up thousands of acres that could be producing something worthwhile and honest. Throw in a lot of guilt and greed, and you've got a volatile mix.