The New York Times clearly was not wowed by Gov. Cuomo’s call to legalize casinos. The Times’ editorial board signaled that casinos are a bad economic development policy.
“We are concerned about his plan to bolster state finances and create jobs with a lot more gambling,” the editorial said. “[Cuomo] said on Wednesday that he will pursue a constitutional amendment that would allow gambling throughout the state and not just in the five casinos run by American Indians and the locations with “electronic gaming machines.” There’s little evidence that casinos, which carry high social costs, will create good, high-wage jobs.”
Building casinos will generate construction jobs in the short term. The casinos hire workers but the wages for most of the jobs tend to be low wage. Granted a job is a job for many who are suffering. The bigger problem is that there is little to no economic spin-off from casinos, which do a great job of keeping gamblers on site by offering free buffets, free drinks and live entertainment. In fact, many other area retail and entertainment businesses suffer from a loss of customers, who spend their money gambling, eating and shopping in the casino.
