Gambling and the Taxes That Go With It
It’s happened to all of us: You stride into the Luxor or Mohegan Sun armed with your credit card, wallet full of cash and plans for some enjoyable, sensible gaming and maybe two rounds of cocktails. But hours later you’re in a daze and have no idea what time it is, how many drinks you’ve had or what happened to your money. That’s because casinos are designed to keep you gambling, and they do so by using sounds, lights, and physical design to create a manufactured state of blissful pleasure.
Casino, Martin Scorsese’s 1995 movie about the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas, is a riveting and unflinching look at the ways that casinos manipulate their patrons. It’s also one of the director’s most violent movies, featuring scenes involving torture with a vice, an attempted murder by car bomb and, of course, the death by overdose of Stone’s character. But the violence in the movie is not purely for shock value or style; it’s a depiction of real-life incidents that occurred to the film’s true-to-life characters.
Gambling has been a part of human civilization for millennia. Dice were found in China around 2300 BC and playing cards appeared in Europe in the 1400s. It’s a pastime that appeals to people of all walks of life because it offers a chance to win, or at least feel like they’ve won, and it can be as low-cost as throwing a penny in a slot machine or as high as hundreds of dollars on a blackjack table.
When casinos open in an area they bring in tourists, and those visitors spend money on local hotels, restaurants and other attractions. The money they spend can be a windfall for the community, but it also means that some of the original population may lose their jobs to the newcomers.
As a result, some casinos have a harder time paying their taxes than others. This is especially true of the older casinos, which can often have large deficits and debts. The problem is getting worse as new casinos open in cities and states across the country, bringing in more gamblers with less money to spare.
Some of these people are unable to control their gambling habits, even with the help of counselors and self-assessment tools. But for most people, the lure of a casino is just too strong to resist. That’s why it’s so important to know how casinos manipulate their patrons so that they can make informed decisions about whether or not they should spend their hard-earned money in the flashing lights and blaring music of the gaming floor.