Blackjack And The Bottom Line

 
As the November ballot looms ever closer the two sides in the gambling debate get ever more heated but a new report out shows why states opt in to the world of legalized gambling.

The lamentable situation in Atlantic City, where numerous casino closures have left a local economy without much else going for it teetering on the edge of disaster, has been a slow motion car crash from which one cannot drag one’s eyes ever since the Atlantic Club quite suddenly closed up shop in January kicking off what could only be called one of the worst years in the city’s history. The gambling industry that had been meant to save the municipality had only prolonged the inevitable and as competitors closed in around it, the opponents of gambling gleefully pointed to it as an example of where it all goes wrong.

Of course the anti-gambling brigade have no issue with clambering up upon the shoulders of 9,000 newly unemployed people to score points in their ongoing attempt rubbish the industry, they’re only concerned with the suffering gambling causes, not the suffering caused by a lack of it, and they willfully ignore the reason that gambling is become more popular across the region whilst focusing on the contraction in a localized market that had a surplus of suppliers versus the levels of demand. The reason gambling is spreading despite Atlantic City’s downturn? Taxes.

The American Gaming Association has produced a report that shows the gambling industry as a whole over the fiscal year of 2013 paid a whopping $38 billion in federal, state and local taxes. Which neatly explains why so many states in the region are leaping on the casino strategy bandwagon, and why investors are still fighting to build even more casinos across a region that arguably already has too many. $10 billion came from direct taxes on gambling per se, with worker income taxes, social security taxes and property taxes making up the other $28 billion.

Oxford Economics, who carried out the study, noted that these figures were probably a little on the conservative side as they took into account only some of the tribal gambling figures due to the manner in which localities divide up tribal gambling tax revenues. It also didn’t count for the personal income taxes anyone might have been forced to pay due to large wins at casinos, so the real figures may be much higher. It is this bottom line that keep people playing in blackjack tournaments and why states as diverse as Delaware and Massachusetts are considering joining the fray despite the Atlantic City circumstance.