My Statistics Paper

Yes. No. Maybe.

Casinos Raise Controversy

In today’s world, gambling generates $40 billion dollars a year in the United States. In fact it generates more revenue than cruise ships, recorded music, theme parks, spectator sports, and movies when they are combined. Now these statistics came from back in 1996, so think about how much money the growing gambling industry must make now (Facts About Las Vegas). With all of this money that gambling is generating, it only makes sense that Linn County wants to get its very own casino. A Casino in Linn County, Iowa would be very beneficial to the county’s economy.

Some people believe that gambling is evil. The movie “21” proves exactly that. When Ben Campbell, the main character, stops counting and starts to gamble during a game, everything goes downhill for him. His professor, Micky, takes all of the money that Ben was saving to go to Harvard Medical School because Ben loses all the money he had bet. If that wasn’t enough to prove that gambling is evil, Ben gets caught by the security chief, Cole Williams. He beats Ben up until Ben agrees to get Micky to come to the casino with him for one last round of blackjack. Well Cole Williams gets the chance to beat up Micky in the end so it worked in his favor (Luketic). Gambling is evil though because people do bad things when gambling is around. People get beat up, casinos get cheated out of money, and people steal money from others.

Nevertheless, the people that believe gambling is evil are wrong. If Linn County were to get a casino, there would be jobs made for people. The casino is supposed to provide over 600 new jobs. Only 362 of these jobs are suspected to be permanent at the casino itself, but that is a fair amount of jobs. Plus local businesses will have to hire more people because of the many customers and tourists that are speculated on visiting Linn County (Vote Yes Linn County Website). There is also the construction workers that will have to be hired in order to build the casino. Those are jobs people. No building can be built without construction workers. It is not like the private investors are going to build the casino with their own two hands. Even if the casino does not get that many employees and even if the local businesses don’t all go out and hire new people, there will still be a large amount of new workers. Casinos are big and need a large employee base. The “Say No Linn County” group may think that the “Say Yes Linn County” group is fudging the numbers, but jobs are going to end up existing from the casino anyway that someone would look at it (Dorman). This will help make the unemployment rate go down in Linn County and help Cedar Rapids, the suggested location of the casino, to recover from the 2008 flood.

People are not going to be beaten up at a casino in Iowa. Not one of the groups for or against the Linn County Casino seems to be worried about safety for the area around which the casino would be built. That is because casinos are safe, as long as the casino is not being used for a movie. Casinos are full of surveillance cameras and large security forces, which is another way jobs are created. If a person tried to beat someone up or get into a fight at a casino, the security guards would quickly stop that. Also, most casinos have valet parking so people are not wandering around on their own during the early hours in the morning. So people would not be attacked while they are walking to their cars (Burton).

A casino in Linn County, Iowa can help the economy by providing jobs and money for people in the county. If the 1996 statistics are anything to go by, gambling is going to bring in a lot more money than any other form of business could. Linn County needs to come up with a way to keep jobs in Linn County, so the casino is a perfect way to do that. The Iowa Racing and Gambling Commissions has the last say in the matter, but the people of Linn County get to decide if it will even go in front of the commission. So what should one say? Linn County needs the money to continue with the pleasant life that it has now. Vote Yes Linn County.

Bibliography

Burton, Bill. "Casino Safety." About.com Casino Gambling. About.com, 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Dorman, Todd. "Casino Ad War Begins." TheGazette Site Wide Activity RSS. The Gazette, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

""Facts About Las Vegas" (1996 Statistics from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.

Gravelle, Steve. "More News Headlines." TheGazette Site Wide Activity RSS. The Gazette, 9 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

Luketic, Robert, dir. 21. Writ. Steinfeld Peter, Loeb Allan, Prod. Dana Brunetti, De Luca Michael, and Spacey Kevin. 2008. DVD. 23 Feb 2013.

Schmidt, Stephen. "Vote No Group Criticizes Prospective Linn County Casino Investors for Projected Nonprofit Donations - Marion, IA Patch." Marion Patch. Marion Patch, 5 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

"Vote Yes Linn County Website." Vote Yes Linn County. Vote Yes Linn Country, 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.