When you are growing up there are
certain milestones you are counting down to. There seems to be something to
celebrate every few years: officially becoming a teenager at thirteen, sweet
sixteen parties, bar mitzvahs, and being able to vote when you turn eighteen,
which for me was a big one. After that my total focus was on the number
twenty-one.
As someone with a December
birthday I was always the youngest in my class but this hurt the most the year
I turned twenty-one. I was a senior in college and LITERALLY the last person I
knew to finally be able to legally drink. A few sips of alcohol might have crossed my lips before that day
but it never tasted quite as sweet as it when it was officially legal. I never
grew tired of getting carded although sadly that doesn’t happen as often as I
would like.
Besides all of the legal drinking
and clubbing you can do at twenty-one there is one other perk- gambling. In the
U.S. gambling age is you guessed it- twenty-one. That is the magic number.
Gambling wasn’t something I ever really cared about, it was just another
advantage to being my favorite age. Damn I really had a great time that year.
“Each
state is free to regulate or prohibit the practice within its borders. If
state-run lotteries are included, almost every state can be said to allow some
form of gambling.”
When it comes to gambling in the
United States there are a hodgepodge of rules. It is a right that every state
decides for itself. I feel like going forward there will be an increasing
number of states trying to pass regulations in favor of gambling if for no
other reason than the high revenues it will surely bring in.
That is how Resorts World Casino
came about.
This casino opened in Queens in
October 2011. The New York State Gambling Commission voted to pass legislation
had granted the ability way back in 2001 but there was a lag due to deadlines
and construction issues, etc. Estimated revenue back in 2011 was a rate of one
and a half million A DAY. I wish I could open my own private casino.
Yonkers Raceway, another gambling
Mecca in New York, opened originally in 1899 as a racing track. There were
countless renovations and in October 2006 they saw their first gaming machines
installed.
I have never been to either of
these facilities and odds are I never will. Like I said I am not a gambler.
I believe I went to Atlantic City
only once and that was many moons ago. I never had a desire to go back. I mean
its New Jersey! But my parents and their peers seem to love it. Maybe it is
because they have been going for so long and until recently New York City
didn’t have any local options. Gambling for us are scratch offs. God I hate
those things too. I would rather have the cash even if it were only a dollar.
As a New Yorker I would prefer to
gamble in Connecticut if I had to simply because Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are
entertainment centers unlike anything else I have seen. You can shop, eat,
sightsee, attends shows, the list goes on and on. It is like being on vacation
even if you are only there for a day.
There is a Harrah’s Casino in the
heart of the French Quarter in my beloved New Orleans but despite visiting that
city three or four times I haven’t ventured there either.
I did however make my way to Las
Vegas once back in 2007 for my birthday weekend. I didn’t gamble at all until
my last day there and after thirty minutes I was over it. I was so busy there I
had to remember to gamble even though I was walking through casinos all day
long. That is how much I loathe gambling. I will end up back in Vegas one of
these days because I need to see Britney Spears’ new concert and perhaps
another Cirque de Soleil show, those are epic.
I know Vegas is commonly called
Sin City and for good reason. Besides legal gambling, prostitution is also
allowed. What an interesting town.
I have decided to look at the
history of gambling in this country to see how we arrived here, in 2016, only
allowed to play where they say.
To my shock gambling in America
can be traced back to Native Americans (no surprise there as many of our
current casinos are on Indian land with money going to that tribe). The Indians
gambled for food and necessities.
“In
1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allowed tribes to offer gaming on their
reservations in order to generate revenue.”
Even after the New World began
inhabited but Europeans gambling in town halls as a means of recreation
remained. Nevada was the first state to legislate this past time in 1933. New
Jersey wouldn’t follow suit until 1977.
On the U.S. Guide to Gambling
website there is a chart that displays cities and counties in each state that
offers legal gambling and at what age you have to be to enter those casinos. It
is all very interesting.
According to this site:
“A
2005 study showed that 85% of adults in the United States gambled at least once
in their lives, and 80% of them had gambled in the past year.”
The research on this topic is
endless. I could easily write a dissertation on this topic but I won’t. For
more information you can start with the links below. I wish you luck, no pun
intended.
I haven’t gambled more than twenty
dollars in years. Even then it wasn’t in consecutive years. Clearly I am in a
league of my own. My vices are travel, books, and coffee mostly. Ok the
occasional pizza or two, too.
Online gaming/gambling and sports
betting remain the two types that remain illegal in the U.S.
Online gambling transactions are
money and goodies being made on off shore accounts. The regulation doesn’t yet
exist where money externally could coexist within our country’s laws.
From the New York Times, August
10, 2016:
“The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, known as
PASPA, prohibits states from authorizing, sponsoring, operating or licensing
sports betting.”
“By a 10-to-2 vote, the court invalidated a law passed by New
Jersey in 2014 that would have allowed sports betting at its casinos and
racetracks and provided a desperately needed boost to the state’s revenue as
once-prosperous Atlantic City continues to collapse.”
It is the hope of the
legislators that by keeping sporting betting illegal it somehow protects the
integrity of the games as well as the players.
All that does is keep
the money in the hands of the bookies and secret OTB wages, both of which you
know will continue to exist.
It is just like
Prohibition, just because its illegal doesn’t make it any less relevant. In
fact it seems to have the reverse effect.
For More Information:
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