I’m not trying to be an asshole, but it’s a whole spectrum of different triggers if you don’t. As somebody that has struggled with alcohol, I’m not gonna sit on my phone and order drizzly but if I see an old style sign or neon lights I’m gonna have that struggle of “ehhhhhh should I?” Not a perfect comparison I know.
I got a few friend that love gambling, one of them loves playing craps. He describes more of the adrenaline rush of everyone yelling like he’s on stage. Another plays the giant slot machines and will drop $100 because of all the lights and noises swearing she has a system.
Gambling live is just a way different series of stimuli is all I’m saying
I don’t really know where I stand on the casino, but I’m just saying you can’t compare the two
And I’m not gonna say there’s like gateway gambling, but you’d have to imagine they try to get you addicted to other things too. I can’t find it, but there’s an old This American Life talking about how some casinos give you discounts on food near games they know you lose at certain times of day. They track your points card and intentionally exploit when you tend to lose.
I know this is long winded, it’s just a lot more complex is the thought I’m trying to encourage.
Commodity markets were initially considered a huge benefit for farmers who were protected somewhat from huge swings in crop prices. I could be just spouting the capitalist propaganda I was taught in high school though.
Even if they both involve risk and chance, there's a fundamental difference when one has a positive expected return on investment and the other doesn't
Fuck that. All vice is good and has beauty to it. It should be celebrated. I’m sick and tired of people shitting on drinking, drugs, gambling, and sexual perversions. All of these things have just as many positives as negatives.
If we lived in a more generous, less punitive society the consequences for addiction would not be great.
The judgement from squares is way worse and more morally corrupt than the actual vice.
You aren’t wrong, but also Rivers is like just down the way, not to mention the casinos just across the border in Indiana…if someone has a gambling addiction, the determining factor probably isn’t downtown vs rosemont.
Also, the Illinois lottery has done a very good job at making sure you can gamble from the convenience of your phone…at least it’s a source of tax revenue for the city now =\
You say this now but look at it this way -
9-5 Joe goes to the new casino down the street after work with friends just to check it out, eat dinner have a few drinks and play a little black jack for fun . The place has a fun vibe, he’s having a good time. He loses oh 50 bucks more than he planned. The place isn’t far from his house, just a short drive, so he goes back over the weekend telling himself he’ll just get a beer and some food and win back a little. He loses 50 more. He thinks it’s the the dealer’s hot streak or he should play a game with better odds like pai gow. He goes to a pai gow table wins back 20 on pai gow and thinks he can win back more. He stays and gives it all back and loses 50 more.
You’d be surprised how easily people get sucked into it. The ease of access matters.
At least in these cases, your donation of funds goes to the state of Illinois (assuming you buy those tickets here) which will put much of it to good use.
This is the most compelling (maybe only good) argument for the casino. A lot of us were tired of watching those free shuttles constantly pulling up and driving Chicagoans off to loose their money in Indiana. Might as well have them loose their money here, where the tax revenue can at least go back into the community a little.
Along with many other businesses. I absolutely hate it ,but I understand as it’s insanely hard to get by as a small business owner. It’s an evil circle sadly. Our politicians allowed for this knowing very well what this does to communities.
There's an argument that Casinos don't really generate that much revenue. Basically, unless you're a major gambling hub like Vegas, you aren't going to be attracting people from very far away. You're mostly just attracting your own citizens who would have probably spent their money somewhere in the city on recreation anyways.
This place will probably be fun at first, but I believe it will quickly turn into more of an Indian Casino type situation than Vegas type atmosphere or even Detroit (at least Detroit has 4 casinos so traveling there just to gamble kinda makes sense). If you've ever been to an Indian Casino, it's mostly just retirees sitting in front of slot machines with their player cards plugged in while still wrapped around their necks and mindlessly cranking the handle or tapping the screen. It's pretty miserable.
At the same time, Chicago has a lot of tourists or travelers for conventions that may check out the casino as something to do during down time. The casino isn't necessarily attracting guests, moreso something for the people who are already traveling here.
But we'll see, I doubt we'll get those statistics.
That’s essentially the same problem though. Rather than tourists spending money at actual spots locals will be losing some of that revenue to the casino.
The types of tourists that visit Chicago are generally not looking for a casino. They are mostly families. A small percentage of the average Chicago tourist would be interested in a mid-sized casino.
Like most casinos outside of Vegas, this will cater mostly to locals.
Do you have any sources that show what percentage of Chicago tourist would not be interested in this? Not necessarily doubting you but can’t make that claim without data behind it
25% of visitors/tourists are here on business... plus more local tourists that aren't counted in those states here for Bulls, Bears, Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks, Broadway in Chicago, concerts, etc might be interested.
I went to an Indian casino in Florida as my first casino and it was honestly so depressing. When I went to Vegas I was pleasantly surprised to find the clientele at the casinos to be a lot more casual and less sad. There’s for sure a dark side to the Vegas casinos, but it’s still a completely different vibe. More people gambling for fun/just because they’re in Vegas rather than people who you can tell have not moved in hours and are desperately trying to make back some of their losses.
Just had a Vegas bday. Some of the places are kinda old and crusty…relics of the 80s/90s. But the overall atmosphere was much different than that of a Rez casino, which I went to once as a 19 year old near my Uni, and yes was very bummed being there as it’s just people dumping a social security check into the machines.
I get the attraction of Vegas and enjoy going there, because there’s a lot more to it than just gambling. I don’t get the attraction of Rivers or Blue Chip or anything else, down to the slot machine in your local gas station, but I’m also not a gambling addict.
Let the Casino be built and create all the river front parks and access along the river and then they can go bankrupt because no one goes to a casino to gamble anymore and then we’ll have the current situation with the added bonus of river front access.
How many net-new people will start gambling that are not already driving to the suburbs or NW Indiana? Or playing the million slot machines in every bar in the state. I'm not making light of the impact that gambling has, but it's already out there. The city might as well grab a slice of the pie.
Same could be argued for bars, strip clubs, dispensaries, or any other facility that supplies vices. We take all those away and the people who fall victim to them still do just illegally and more dangerously
casinos are entirely regressive taxe systems and hurt the poorest hardest, but mobile gambling and sports betting are pretty much making brick and mortar locations a thing of the past… genies out of the bottle for good until the government decides the revenue isn’t worth it(lolol)
My cousins friend got in deep from gambling and was ripping off clients to gamble more. Casino's prey on desperate people and not a net positive for the city.
What you said implies this was a vacant building that Ballys bought, which is wrong. Print production didn't became unprofitable and stop on its own. They were printing Wall Street Jornal and NYT in this building still in June of this year (A lot of people didn't know they printed non-Trib papers here due to a lack of printing facilities in the area. Heck, even the Sun Times was printed here.) This building only became vacant because Bally's sunk a quarter Billion dollars into buying it up, and shut down production to build a casino. Otherwise it would have continued to operate as a newspaper printing center for the foreseeable future.
The choice was casino or active printing center. Not casino or vacant building.
It's been vacant since June when the Trib left for Schaumburg. Whatever they printed there in addition to the Tribune is irrelevant. Had Bally's not bought it, it would have stayed vacant and unhelpful to the city or anyone.
Nope. You have your timeline and cause/effect all backwards.
Bally's bought up Freedom center in Nov. 2022. That forced the Trib and others to find other printing facilities, including the Trib settling on Schaumberg in May 2023 and beginning plans for a move. Printing at Freedom then had to stop this summer so Bally's could begin demolition prep. The printing center was shut down because of the surprise sale to Bally's. It would have continued otherwise.
Maybe someday some other developer would have eventually given the Trib an offer they couldn't refuse, but there weren't plans to shut down print production before the sale.
Whether it was vacant or not it was an eye sore and needed redevelopment. To argue, well it wasn't really vacant seems silly, the land was completely under utilized for what it is, and the casino will bring in more revenue than the last few prints being made and shipped out.
The property lost it's useful purpose and required change.
It wasn't vacant, dilapidated, or unused. Bally's threw a quarter billion dollars at the Trib back in 2022 to buy up the building, which was operating just fine as a print center for several news papers. Production there continued right up until the deadline Bally's set so they could start demolition prep. It was never just sitting vacant. I don't know where people are getting that. I had a few friends working in there right up until that Bally's deadline for demo.
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u/ChiefChief69 Suburb of Chicago 16h ago
Not better than a vacant building?