What Do You All Think About Casinos

Casinos in Tennessee?

  • For

    Votes: 32 78.0%
  • Against

    Votes: 4 9.8%
  • Depends (Explain further)

    Votes: 5 12.2%

  • Total voters
    41
#1

Tri-CitiesVol

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2016
Messages
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5,546
#1
Coming to Tennessee?

Recently saw plans for one in Sevierville backed by Cherokee indians and another at the Bristol TN/VA line.

Will they ever get enough support to get the state’s gambling laws changed? Will they be successful?
 
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#4
#4
Don’t care either way. I won’t be using it but if people wish to it’s fine by me.
 
#6
#6
I went to Cherokee one evening during a golf trip last fall and couldn't believe how crowded it was. Every Craps table was full, and I think the lowest min was $15, Blackjack was similar.

Also, despite fairly positive reviews, I was extremely disappointed in the quality of our meal and service at what was supposed to be a higher-end restaurant.
 
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#7
#7
I went to Cherokee one evening during a golf trip last fall and couldn't believe how crowded it was. Every Craps table was full, and I think the lowest min was $15, Blackjack was similar.

Also, despite fairly positive reviews, I was extremely disappointed in the quality of our meal and service at what was supposed to be a higher-end restaurant.

Niiiice, setting a Like trap for biopsyman. That oughta flush him out.
 
#8
#8
I went to Cherokee one evening during a golf trip last fall and couldn't believe how crowded it was. Every Craps table was full, and I think the lowest min was $15, Blackjack was similar.

Also, despite fairly positive reviews, I was extremely disappointed in the quality of our meal and service at what was supposed to be a higher-end restaurant.

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#9
#9
I'm more libertarian than most, but this isn't exactly a good selling point...

Bristol’s financial struggles have been well documented, as have those of the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. The recently announced closing of Bristol Compressors will cost the area nearly 1,000 jobs. Historically among the poorest areas of the state, Southwest Virginia suffers from high unemployment, limited job and career opportunities, a declining coal industry and a growing opioid addiction problem. New, decent-paying jobs are the answer, both immediately and in the long run, to help address these problems.
 
#10
#10
I’d love to see a casino replace the scrap yard on the east bank of the Cumberland in Nashville. I would rather have casinos in TN than the lottery.
 
#13
#13
If casinos open up in TN, they need to be managed and backed by the state of TN, and not involve any tribal governments or authorities in any way whatsoever. Any profits derived from the operations of casinos in the state of TN should be distributed back to the people of the state, much in the same that the proceeds from the gambling on the state lottery are distributed to the youth of TN via Hope Scholarships. The profits should not go back to an American Indian tribe, where the tribal leadership enjoy the profits, and the regular people living on the rez are still living in dire conditions. It's been years since I've been to Cherokee, NC, but once you get off the beaten path and into the rez, you see people living in appalling conditions still (broken down singlewide trailers, no running water, no electricity).

Compare the plight of American Indian tribes that have casinos, and compare that to the enormous impact that the TN Hope Scholarship has had on our state. There's no question that the lottery scholarship system has had a positive impact on the state, with minimal societal costs. This is in stark contrast to the massive profits generated by Indian casinos, with little to no benefit for regular American Indian people.

Take for example the Pine Ridge, SD Reservation which has 2 casinos, and the Lakota people of Pine Ridge live in perhaps the most deplorable conditions in our nation. The disparities in economic and health outcomes are truly appalling:

Life Expectancy: 47 years for men - among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere (nearly 30 years shorter than the average American male lifespan)
Infant Mortality: 5x the national average
Suicide: 4x the national average
Alcoholism: Affects 85% of families on the Pine Ridge Reservation and 90% of crime is alcohol related. At the liquor stores across the border in Nebraska, 4.9 million 12-ounce cans of beer in 2010 almost exclusively to Oglala Lakota from the reservation (nearly 170 cans per person).
Unemployment: 80%-85% of the population are unemployed.

In summary, I would be open to the idea of a casino opening up in East TN or SW VA, so long as they are managed and run by the state, not an Indian tribe. As long as the people of the state benefit, I'd be open to the idea.


https://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2016/09/30/editorial-oglala-sioux-tribe-k.asp
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - Wikipedia
 
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#14
#14
Every truck stop around here it seems has a "casino" attached to it that's nothing but slot machines... yes they are depressing.

We have three in Baton Rouge (which is absurd, yes) and two of them are older and struggling while the newer one is doing really well. It's a resort with a casino attached though, as opposed to just a riverboat casino.

Personally I'm all for them, they bring jobs, they bring tax revenue (although I'm not sure how that works with Indian casinos?) and they tend to bring in other entertainment. I've been to the bigger one here more for concerts and banquets than for gambling.
 
#15
#15
In principle I’m not against it. But frequently seem to be more of a blight than a benefit.
 
#16
#16
I'm more libertarian than most, but this isn't exactly a good selling point...

Totally agree, that website is total cringe, and using the opioid crisis which was literally manufactured and created by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family is truly disgusting.

It's no different than Richard Sackler (Purdue Pharma Chairman and President) blaming the victims of their legal heroin-like Oxycontin, and the generic Oxycodone. In Sackler's words: “We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,” Mr. Sackler wrote in an email in 2001, when he was president of the company, Purdue Pharma. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.”

And not to mention, that specifically the people of Appalachia were a targeted demographic by the Sacklers. Again, Richard Sackler: “the launch of OxyContin tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white,"

I'd oppose the building of the casino just for this kind of disgusting attempt at marketing. As indicated in my above post, it's obvious how the casinos in Pine Ridge, SD have done nothing to improve economic and health outcomes for the local population.

For those interested in learning more about Purdue Pharma (which for full disclosure has nothing to do with Purdue University) - Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, Court Filing Claims
 
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#17
#17
As long as it includes actual card games go for it. Went to one in Bama and it was nothing but slots, it was so depressing.
Yep, i hate our casinos. Table games are illegal in Alabama, but so is gambling.....yet we have slot machines on Indian land.....figure that out.
 
#18
#18
Yep, i hate our casinos. Table games are illegal in Alabama, but so is gambling.....yet we have slot machines on Indian land.....figure that out.

Tribal nations are considered to be sovereign entities, and are considered by the federal government to be domestic dependent nations. The power of Tribal nations does not come from an individual state, which is why Alabama laws do not apply to casinos built on reservation land in the state.

This is the very reason why I vehemently oppose any Indian casinos to be opened up in Tennessee. I am not ok with changing TN or VA state laws to allow a separate sovereign nation to manage the casino and appropriate the funding back to their nation in the mountains of Eastern NC. Any casino that would be built in TN or VA should benefit every citizen in the state, as is the case of the TN Hope Scholarship from the state lottery, and not a select group of people who can trace their lineage back to the Dawes Rolls.
 
#19
#19
Tribal nations are considered to be sovereign entities, and are considered by the federal government to be domestic dependent nations. The power of Tribal nations does not come from an individual state, which is why Alabama laws do not apply to casinos built on reservation land in the state.

This is the very reason why I vehemently oppose any Indian casinos to be opened up in Tennessee. I am not ok with changing TN or VA state laws to allow a separate sovereign nation to manage the casino and appropriate the funding back to their nation in the mountains of Eastern NC. Any casino that would be built in TN or VA should benefit every citizen in the state, as is the case of the TN Hope Scholarship from the state lottery, and not a select group of people who can trace their lineage back to the Dawes Rolls.
I understand that they can do whatever they want with their land but why can't they have table games?
 
#20
#20
I understand that they can do whatever they want with their land but why can't they have table games?

Because players can hypothetically get an advantage playing table games (poker, blackjack), and slots are electronically controlled with payouts pre-determined. Now with Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition, casinos are pushing the margins even further with slots. The video poker high utilization arbitrage loophole has been perfected a long time ago.
 
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#23
#23
Single or double deck, hand dealt blackjack is the only way to go. To even get started on those games in NC, the minimums I've seen are $500 or $1000. In Tunica, MS you can find hand dealt games with buy-ins as little as $10 or $25.
 
#24
#24
I may be older than most VNsters, but I don't need Depends and don't foresee needing them in the future. I vote German Potato Salad.
 
#25
#25
I went to Cherokee one evening during a golf trip last fall and couldn't believe how crowded it was. Every Craps table was full, and I think the lowest min was $15, Blackjack was similar.

Also, despite fairly positive reviews, I was extremely disappointed in the quality of our meal and service at what was supposed to be a higher-end restaurant.
I went to Cherokee but honestly wasn't overly impressed. Maybe it is just because I got cleaned out at the blackjack table. They also cannot serve free booze while you are playing because of NC state law.

IMO, a casino with no table games is useless/pointless. For all you know, those machines might never be programmed to pay out (they do pay out, but theoretically speaking). At least at blackjack, craps, roulette, etc., there are decisions to make and you can do things to reduce the house advantage. You're just blindly putting coins into a slot at a slot machine.
 

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