Atlantic City in dire straits? Blinded by greed
I saw a similar article about Atlantic City, talking about the HUGE expansion, profits and seemingly never-ending piles of money rolling in from gamblers flocking in. Out of curiousity I went to the reader comments at the bottom of the article and we are not talking about a sympathetic public to say the LEAST! "Pocketing millions and not worrying about tomorrow so they are idiots", "Not seeing what was on the horizon competition-wise so they are idiots", "They tightened up because they are so greedy and it's impossible to do anything but lose that much faster so I no longer go so I don't end up calling MYSELF an idiot", "Screw those people and I hope they go broke",etc., etc... In the readers comments I could not find a SINGLE posting that didn't express some sort of negative attitude toward AC casinos!
Some of this is true with regard to the "perfect storm" of economic issues combined with added competition of gaming opening up in neighboring states but there is ANOTHER factor, the short-sightedness of AC casinos to not be prepared for any economic downturns or added competition. They got so used to hauling it in for so long with no end in sight that greed blinded them as to anything possibly going wrong... they continued to write themselves huge bonuses, act irresponsibly with the huge cashflow and it's catching up to them.
Greed CONTINUES to interfere with their rational judgement. In order to be suitably greedy, they are taking it out on the casino patrons by increasing house edges, "tightening up" those machines for short-term gains that will kill them in the long haul. You see, to assume that the vast majority of your gambling base is too stupid to realize that they are losing more money faster is wrong... they notice! They notice enough to get discouraged from playing or at least playing quite as much. I overhear conversations among casino patrons talking about how they USED to actually win on occasion years back and loved to play but now it seems so futile and painfully obvious that "they have tightened up those machines to the point of it being impossible to do anything but lose anything you put in them... QUICKLY!" Discouraged gamblers are not good for repeat business and if you don't toss them a tidbit back once in a while they just might give up. Casinos blinded with greed trying to make up for their financial mismanagement will of course fail to understand this concept and will pay dearly in the long run and eventually the "Association of little old ladies pissing away their social security checks" will dwindle down to fewer members. Even the DUMBEST of people playing 6:5 and H17 blackjack will eventually figure out that they are losing more often than they already were, much more consistently and will become discouraged. Those FUTURE casino patron prospects get their butt kicked hard enough early on and they will never BECOME members of the "Association of little old ladies pissing away their social security checks in slot machines". Gouging it out for more and for all you can produces a lower volume of business and your greed can cost you a lot of money.