Casino Popularity

Before I scare too many readers off, I will state right now that while this document contains my opinions it is not strictly about my opinion. Instead, this document is an explanation of how casinos make money. This is not a document attempting to persuade you not to go to casinos, but an explanation about why you will likely loose your money if you do. If you enjoy that type of entertainment, and are of legal age, then enjoy yourself. It, however, never hurts to understand how things work. So read this document to gain a bit of insight on the Casino industry.

I tend to like some type of background noise going on while I am working. Sometimes it is music, but quite often it is the ancient device known as a television. I was going through the television schedule one Sunday and noticed something rather interesting. It would appear that there are a large number of casino related shows. I don't know what the television situation is like in the rest of the world, though perhaps one day I will have the time and money to find out first hand. It is possible that this money will come in the form of a winning lottery ticket, though the odds of that are one in fourteen million. While I may travel the world one day, it will probably not be as a result of winning a lottery.

Still, seeing all of these shows on casino's made me think about what has been happening in B.C. This province has had a lottery for quite a while. Recently the addition of Casinos were added. The reasoning behind this is that people are going to Las Vegas to gamble anyway so having local casinos would help the situation by keeping the money spent on gambling inside the province. While this sounds nice in theory, what the government fails to take into account is the fact that people with gambling problems no longer need to go to another country to gamble, but can do it every day. Actually, I think the government did take this into account and planned on it. Governments get a nice cut of the profits from gambling, which makes it easier to balance the books. Gambling is the ultimate hidden tax.

While it is true that casinos can be thought of as cash cows for the government and owners, the laws of supply and demand still apply. The demand will eventually top out. As more ways to gamble are introduced, the cash generated will no longer increase and instead will be spread out over the larger number of mouths. As anyone who has lived on a farm knows, starving cows will not produce much milk. Gambling money is not free money, but is money that is in a limited supply. As casinos and other forms of gambling cost money to operate, continually adding new forms of gambling will eventually result in a situation where the supply outweighs the demand. When this happens, casino businesses will start going bankrupt.

While casinos can be a good way of earning the government money without increasing taxes, there is a limit. There is also the nasty problem of gambling addiction, which is something that governments want to avoid looking into.