There aren't any. Does anyone know why the enabling legislation for the Mississippi casinos omitted sports and race books?
The Boomtown Rats said it best in I Don't Like Mondays:
They can see no reasons
Cause there are no reasons
What reasons do you need to be shown?
What reason did the State of Mississippi need to require that casinos had to be built on water? (Although, Katrina gave 'em good incentive to allow them on land by moving a couple of them there herself.)
What reason did other river boat casino states need to require players to ride out away from shore for two hours with maximum session bankrolls limited to as low as $300?
What reason does North Carolina have for requiring blackjack to be played without real cards?
Why are all of the Indian casinos in Alabama limited to only bingo style games? (By the way, the Indians are appealing to the Feds to get this changed, first to allow slot machines, and then to allow card games, so keep an eye on this.)
There's a surburban town of Atlanta named Lilburn where the mayor and the city council just ruled that bars can no longer allow karoke, pool, darts, dancing, trivia games, or any other participative entertainment. All entertainment must be passive. (I wonder if watching strippers would be okay, then.)
The silicon chip inside their heads must've got switched to overload.
is, as T-man points out, there are no real cards used in Harrah's Cherokee casino in North Carolina. While there are live dealers, BJ is basically an electronic game, and worse yet, the shuffle point is programmed at 50%. The place is the worst excuse for a casino, but it seems to pack in the slot players. I've been there twice, the second time I was enroute to elsewhere and wanted to see if any games had changed.
The casino itself has an idyllic setting near the entrance to Smoky Mountain National Park. Pigeon Forge is over the mountain and the home of Dollywood, (Dolly Parton's version of Disneyworld) other local attractions, with easy side trips to some excellent trout fishing, hiking and the pristine Cade's Cove area.
If the objective is to remove money from the customers, somebody is missing the point, as Atlantan's would head there in droves were real BJ and craps offered. I'd guess they're missing out on untold millions in revenue.
Reminds me of the casinos in Colorado, where your max bet is $5. This thanks to the Governor.
...towards logic, order or consistency. I thought the idea was economic stimulation fueled by accessing the untapped discretionary resources of the well-to-do. The key idea here is, or was, I think, that a redistribution of wealth thru salaries and wages and third party entrepreneurship would yield a salutory positive effect upon one of the country's more stagnant sections. Not allowing these descretionary dollars to be wagered upon sports and racing seems an opportunity lost.
Boat-missing seems to be a common thread, as Wildcard points out below. For example, Florida could easily become the king of East Coast poker. Poker could do for Florida what it's done for California. It could, except the Southern Baptists would object to increasing tourist traffic anywhere other than to mid-Florida's theme parks. And their influence cannot be denied: the largest Baptist church in the state is located in Tallahassee, across the street from the legislature.
And Florida, which was my home for twenty-five years, is a pointed example of America's ambiguous and ambivalent attitude toward gambling. Various economic analyses have identified Florida's pari-mutuel industry (Jai-Lai and greyhound and horse-racing [Florida is the country's second largest thoroughbred breeding state]) as the second to fourth largest employer in the state. Yet the state lottery, which, by law, must spend 5% of its revenue spreading itself thru advertising, has been a dagger to the heart of the parimutuels. The lottery, which is intended to fleece the ignorant and superstitous and is the moral equivalent of sending armed thugs into poorer neighborhoods to relieve the marginally employed of their paychecks, has shrunk the state's parimutuels.
There are just so many idiot dollars to go around. There was no incisive analysis going in, and no comprehensive review thereafter. Pathetic.
has been around a lot longer than the various state lotteries.
Why let the mob have the money when your friendly neighborhood politician can have it?
As I recall, back in the '50s and '60s, the numbers in D.C. were paying 60 cents on the dollar. Now the MD, VA and DC lotteries are paying 50 cents. I ask you: who are the REAL crooks?
