LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Gambling: States
built 634 days ago
In 1978, New Jersey became the second state to legalize casino gambling in an attempt to revitalize the rundown resort area of Atlantic City. The legalization was restricted only to Atlantic City. In the late 1800's to the early 1900's, Atlantic City was a popular resort town, boosted by the new rail service which linked the Northeast. Day trips to the Jersey shore were now possible and affordable. But its popularity dwindled when air travel became easily accessible. Upscale tourists chose beach resorts in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean over Atlantic City.
Source:
These are the new pictures of gambling, but they stand uneasily alongside a whole set of different and more troubling images. If you are a restaurant owner near a casino, you might see your business closed and your employees laid off, because you couldn't compete with the cut-rate meals casinos use to attract customers. If you live in one of the cities that allows riverboat gambling, you might have seen your taxes rise or your neighbors lose their jobs when the riverboat left for a less-restrictive state. If you live in a poor community, you might see your friends seduced by the government's promise that the lottery is "Your ticket out," even though the odds are hopeless. If you work in a casino child care center, you might see the same children -- sometimes even infants -- left with you night after night, while their parents gamble into the morning hours. Or if you have a husband or wife, parent or child who is addicted to gambling, you might have seen your family driven into bankruptcy or broken apart, and your loved one sunk deep in depression, or perhaps even tempted to commit suicide.
Source:
In the early 21st century gambling was sometimes called the new American pastime. By 2004, 36 states had legalized casino gambling as a way to stimulate their economies and create jobs, either commercially or specifically on Native American lands. Television shows featuring poker tournaments attracted high ratings, giving casinos and card rooms valuable free publicity. One annual tournament, the World Series of Poker, garnered widespread media coverage with its huge cash payouts—including a $5 million grand prize in 2004. As more casinos continued to open around the world and Internet gambling grew rapidly, the industry attracted millions of new gamblers.
Source:
Gambling in the United States has been experiencing a period of unprecedented growth since the end of the 1980s. Though gambling policy is often controversial, and the activity is still considered a vice in the minds of many, its legal status in many jurisdictions has clearly moved from prohibition to restricted tolerance.
Source:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ohio Roundtable is calling on Governor Ted Strickland to immediately withdraw his plan to expand gambling in Ohio under the auspices of the Ohio Lottery Commission. The Roundtable issued a call to over 10,000 citizens to immediately contact the Governor's office and urge him to repeal his gambling expansion plans. In addition, the President of the Roundtable issued the following statement to the Ohio Media. Statement of David Zanotti, President/CEO, The American Policy Roundtable and the Ohio Roundtable: "It is with deepest regret that we point out the profound hypocrisy and ill-advised strategy of expanding the Ohio Lottery to include electronic games of chance in bars and social clubs across Ohio. This development, proposed by Governor Strickland is wrong on many levels, including the following: 1) In 1973 the voters of Ohio did not pass a Lottery Amendment with the intention of giving future Governors the right to unlimited, statewide gambling expansion. Ohio voters approved a lottery drawing to help education.
Source:
[T]he public had become more tolerant of gambling, and women were catching up to men as gamblers. The state of Illinois and licensed corporations have become the major organizers of gambling. Illinois began operating a state lottery in 1975, with sales over $1.5 billion in 2000. By then, 4 privately owned casinos and 10 off-track betting sites had been licensed in the Chicago region. With its image sanitized, “gaming” attracted many middle-and upper-income bettors.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
States