Calling Out the House’s Casino Opponents
Which is what Representative Dennis E. Williams does in his piece in the NJ this AM called House Bill 146 would create more jobs than Bloom Energy. His claim:
There are 34,900 people unemployed in Delaware, according to last month’s report from the Department of Labor. This doesn’t count potentially hundreds more who may be laid off as a result of the bankruptcy of Allen Family Foods in Sussex County.
But these aren’t just numbers. These are our family, friends and neighbors, many of whom have been forced out of their homes.
Legislation I have introduced would create 3,600 jobs.
Under House Bill 146, these would at first mostly be union and non-union construction jobs, building facilities for new businesses. Another 2,000 full-time jobs would be created with the start of operations of these new businesses.
But yet, this is being stopped by:
Six is the number of state representatives on a House committee voting to prevent H.B. 146 from going to the House floor for debate and passage: John Viola, Helene Keeley, Dan Short, Biff Lee, Gerald Hocker and Darryl Scott.
The smallest number, three, is the number of businesses in Delaware who are benefiting from the lack of competition that H.B. 146 would end.
Projections of job creation are notoriously soft — and certainly the construction jobs here are temporary, only lasting for as long as the construction does. And I don’t know much about the quality of the majority of the jobs available at a newly built casino — as in whether these jobs are FT, have benefits and have some upward mobility.
But while I applaud Williams for naming names here, it is precisely the lack of internal competition (or, really, the existence of fairly vibrant competition from venues outside of the state) that is the long term problem here. I keep asking the question over and over (and have asked one of the Obstructing Six too) — How do you maintain a market for the Harrington and Dover venues (in particular), when there are venues in MD and PA that are specifically targeting some of the same market AND are more convenient to get to? No one has been able to answer that question, but by the time these two venues know that competition is a problem, it will be way too hard for Delaware to recapture that market. And these guys and girls will be looking to spend your money to try to recapture the thing that they should have planned on retaining, instead of just doing what the current casino owners asked them to do.
It is just short-sighted not to get out of the way of the market here and let ALL of these venues — the current ones and the proposed ones — live or die on their own. And without special protections from the Obstructionist Six — John Viola, Helene Keeley, Dan Short, Biff Lee, Gerald Hocker and Darryl Scott.
Tags: Delaware Casinos
There are billboards in DC for Dover Downs. Like Cassandra, I doubt that tour buses will pass even one casino to get to Dover.
Then again, the casino industry in DE was the product of protectionism, as the desire to save the horse racing industry became the most important thing evah!
It stands to reason that we will try to save the existing racetrack casinos the same way we saved horse racing. By making a small clique of multi-millionaires even wealthier.
Free market bitches!!!!
The casinos in MD have had lower than expected returns because they only offer slots, while DE offers table games. And while the MD legislature allowed slots, allowing table games will meet with stiff resistance.
The casinos in MD have been doing pretty good business for startups — they had some decline in revenues last month, but just that month. If there is a sense that MD has lower than expected returns, that is because they haven’t been able to open the Western MD and Baltimore venues.
allowing table games will meet with stiff resistance.
That’s what people said about table games here. Once MD lawmakers get accustomed to the revenue, it will ALWAYS be easier for them to add table games than it will for them to raise taxes. Besides, slots are the low-hanging fruit. Why would people who just want to play the slots (and there are alot of these folks) drive past the Hollywood venue to go to Dover?
I don’t understand the argument discounting the value of construction jobs because they are temporary. That argument could be used to discount the value of doing ANY construction since the nature of the trade is such that the jobs last as long as the construction projects do. The telling fact is that the unemployment rate in DE in the construction trades is over 20%. That level of unemployment should be an argument FOR these proposed construction projects.
Cassandra – who wants to take a bus trip to Arundel Mall or Perryville to go play slots? And western MD – desolate.
If you are already in Baltimore — why would you want to take a bus trip to Dover or Harrington to play the slots?
If you are already at the DE beach and all you want to do is play the slots, are you going to Harrington or Ocean City?
If you are already in the Western MD area for vacation, are you really coming to DE to gamble? Because lots of people do go to Western MD to vacation — either in their own homes or at resorts like Rocky Gap. These are the kind of places you go if you want to be out of doors and not in massive crowds of people — which wouldn’t exactly count it as desolate.
Because that is what the competition looks like — people who had been going to Dover and Harrington from MD, PA or even NCCo now going to venues closer to them. I’ve said this before, I certainly do not take my out of town guests who want to gamble to Dover or Harrington.
People are already coming to this area to drop money. The beach, boating, festivals, shows, etc. Some of these people are from North Jersey and New York. Driving by a 100+ miles of beach in NJ to come here.
We are a toursit destination and a casino in Millsboro would be just another thing to do while in the area.
Not to mention the concert venue, restaurants and indoor waterpark planned for the casino.
It needs to be pointed out that the state risks NOTHING in this venture when compared to Fisker and other companies getting huge loans and grants that may or may not pay off. All the state is doing is granting a license.
This is a “no risk…reward” proposition for the state. There are clearly investors willing to take the gamble. State revenue can only go up…not down as result of more casino locations. Either these legislators buy the failed logic that somehow state revenue will suffer from more casinos and/or they are protecting the owners of the existing casinos with no regard to the unemployed, the benefits of increased state revenue and or the taxpayers in this state. In any case, their opposition is irresponsible, negligent and an outrage. They should be held accountable.