Brandon Kennedy
Economics A3
Mrs. Straub
2 December, 2014
Gambling to Help the Economy
Everyone knows that if there was one state to call the home of gambling it would be Nevada. It is home to the world famous Las Vegas. Everyone all around the world at one point or another has heard of Las Vegas, Nevada which some may call the “Gambling Capital of the World.” One can only imagine what kind of effect all of the money that the casinos bring in, and what affect that has on the economy. Last year Clark County, Nevada, the place that brings Las Vegas had an annual income of about 9.7 billion dollars. That is just one country alone. Now what does this have to do with Wisconsin?
Imagine is Milwaukee County brought in that much revenue each year just because of “games.” Throughout the entire state of wisconsin there are just twenty two casinos, compared to the seventy six total casinos in Las Vegas alone. This means that there are more than three times the amount of casinos in the city of Las Vegas than the state of Wisconsin. Some may say that more casinos are needed in Wisconsin and here’s why. Adding more casinos in the State of Wisconsin will cause for economic growth in our state because of the amount of jobs that they will create and the amount of money that they will bring in each year which will bring our state's unemployment rate down to a healthy unemployment rate of four percent compared to its current five point six percent.
Gambling at a casino is kind of like the business cycle. There is a expansion, a peak, a contraction, then a trough and then it starts all over again. The expansion is when the people start to win money, they feel good about themselves and are wanting to bet more because of the reward of winning. A peak is the point where you would win a large amount of money and you try to win even more but then comes the contraction. You start to lose all of your money you have won during the contraction phase and if you let the contraction phase continue while you keep losing money then you eventually hit the trough. This is the final stage when you have lost all of your winnings and you have no money left over. Then this starts all over again once you go gambling the next time.
Casinos can be good for the economy when they bring in a large annual income and when they make many jobs for people who don’t have any which helps the economy get to a better level. Casinos are also good for people because it is where they go to have a fun night and get away from their home life. But in all reality even though gambling sounds like a lot of fun it can turn out to cause major problems. Problems such as loss of money and could cause problems in your household. Even though casinos has its upside for the economy it has a downside for the people with what it can cause to happen to them.
Works Cited
Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.google.com/search?q=unemployment
"Las Vegas Stats & Facts." Las Vegas Stats and Facts. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
"List of Casinos in Wisconsin." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Nov. 2014.
"Potawatomi Bingo & Casino & Hotel | Travel Wisconsin." TravelWisconsin. Web.
2 Dec. 2014.
"There Are No Shortcuts to Investing." Must-know: The Casino Industry's Key Revenue
Drivers. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
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I never thought to compare this to the economy. I knew that casinos made a bunch of money on a nightly basis but I never thought it was that much. I would think that if we as Wisconsin decided to build a lot more casinos, however, that it would cost more than we can afford at the moment. I would cost a lot of money to build them and it would take some time for them to make money. But, I did think you did a great job with this topic though there were a few mechanical errors like punctuation or capitalization of certain words. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis a great choice for econ, this is a modern day topic that has even be shown in popular TV series, and one that has a very circular argument. In the positive light more money and jobs would be given to the community, on the other hand there could be a raise in gambling addictions, money loss, and/or crime. Whether the community decides to allow the casinos or not, there is no true win-win solution that would come out of this situation.
ReplyDeleteThere appears to be substantial benefit to building more casinos in Wisconsin, but this monetary benefit does not factor in the negative externalities caused by these casinos. Gambling, which many people consider a vice, could attract less than reputable characters to Wisconsin, and their impact on the citizens of the city near the casino is not taken into account in this figure. If such a negative externality is present, society overallocates its resources to this good.
ReplyDeleteLas Vegas is a city not a country Brandon haha. But I do agree that gambling would help out Wisconsin in a positive manner. More jobs would be offered and our annual income would grow drastically. A negative to this though could be that more and more people would continue to gamble and lose money. Gambling is addicting, but It does seem fun. I think Wisconsin should invest in adding casinos, but not as many as Las Vegas. Also, if other states started putting in casinos for gambling, it would take out a lot of the fun in going to Vegas.
ReplyDeleteWhile the idea of increasing the number of casinos in Wisconsin sounds positive, there's also some negative to consider as well. First off, as my fellow economic colleagues have stated above, these casinos may bring some "shady" characters to the area causing a possible increase in crime and the need to spend more money for a better police force. Second, if there was an increase in casinos, will it truly bring any monetary gains to Wisconsin? Wisconsin economically is rather healthy and growth/ expansion is still occurring. The point here is simple, if more casinos were built in Wisconsin, they would nothing more but mere luxury's and nobody within the state would have anything to gain.
ReplyDeleteJust last summer I went to Las Vegas, and it was truly insane just how crowded the strip, the hotels, and the casinos were with people spending money. The casinos make a great deal of money from the gamblers, the hotels make money from those staying to gamble, and restaurants can charge a lot for their meals because they know people want to stay close to their slot machines and poker tables. However, those who live in the Vegas area don't have much of a choice in jobs, and many of those are lower paying ones in the hotels, casinos, and restaurants.
ReplyDeleteYou touched base on it but really didn't go into the negative externalities that come with increased production of casinos. In general, people that are more seedy tend to go to casinos. I know this isn't entirely true but if we tripled the amount of casinos there would be more people that prefer to leach off of society. This would make it very possible that the extra revenue gained from the casinos would be negated by the money that would need to go into this new demographic of people, which could even account for a total loss of money.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this info is completely unique.gamblingwebsites.org.uk
ReplyDelete