Fernando MonteiroThe Voucher and the Casino Business
May 24th 2009 11:51
Two news stories pervaded the newspapers last week: one was the halving in revenue from James Packer’s casino business in the USA, Macau and also in Australia. It was thought that gambling was recession proof, but the fact is that it hit hard in these places affecting mostly the small gamblers. The question to be asked now is how far down and for how long will it go?
The big gamblers continue to gamble heavily and the second story of this week was the one of a Gold Cost Developer, Mr Kakavas, who gambled in Melbourne Crown casino $1.5 billion – yes, billion not million – across15 months and is now suing Crown for the restitution of $30 million. The claim is that he was induced to gamble that crazily by the casino which offered him boxes full with $30,000 and $50,000 for him to gamble when he was sort of short of money and let him use the private GulfStream jet to travel to the Gold Coast.
Mr Kakavas was prolific and, as an example of it, betted on Baccarat, which is a fast kind of game, hands of $300,000 each. When he went broke the house lent him money for him to continue. He also borrowed large amounts of money from friends. Now that everything came to a halt, he wants his money back.
To me this whole story is top ridicule, both for Mr Kakavas and the whole casino concept and I can’t stop laughing on it.
Casinos are not there to entertain people or give them a great experience, let alone to give them a win – no, casinos are there to get people’s money and make a gain by the end of the day, even if they have to change the rules a thousand times. Anyone that does not realise this is silly.
When you gamble you do not create added value – money simply change hands. If the entire GDP of a country was gambled in the next corner casino, no increase in it would have been achieved, just some gamblers would be losers and would be broke, and some would be winners and wouldn’t believe their luck. But, ultimately, the entire country would stagnate and in time go broke altogether for lack of productive investment.
Let’s be honest: gambling is socially unsound, as we all well know, and promoting it in industrial levels throughout the entire world is hell crazy. Many people chronically blow up their hard earned salary the day they receive it and go home for a hungry family they cannot support. So many people give up altogether working productively and dedicate themselves to the evil thing. Do we not know already all this and a whole lot more? So, what justifies casino gambling?
The only thing that justifies gambling is the taxes that governments charge on it. Like a voucher, the government has from the rotten body of the casino gambling business in the form of taxes and spends them in the community, in social works. To me this strategy looks like trying to give life to a body with the poisoned blood of another.
One day, I believe, people will wake up and casinos will be closed for good and professional gamblers, I hope, put to forced labour. Meanwhile, we have to put up with this outrageous Mr Kakavas who, after waking up from a bad dream, wants his money back from the casino. How bloody ridiculous.
The big gamblers continue to gamble heavily and the second story of this week was the one of a Gold Cost Developer, Mr Kakavas, who gambled in Melbourne Crown casino $1.5 billion – yes, billion not million – across15 months and is now suing Crown for the restitution of $30 million. The claim is that he was induced to gamble that crazily by the casino which offered him boxes full with $30,000 and $50,000 for him to gamble when he was sort of short of money and let him use the private GulfStream jet to travel to the Gold Coast.
Mr Kakavas was prolific and, as an example of it, betted on Baccarat, which is a fast kind of game, hands of $300,000 each. When he went broke the house lent him money for him to continue. He also borrowed large amounts of money from friends. Now that everything came to a halt, he wants his money back.
To me this whole story is top ridicule, both for Mr Kakavas and the whole casino concept and I can’t stop laughing on it.
Casinos are not there to entertain people or give them a great experience, let alone to give them a win – no, casinos are there to get people’s money and make a gain by the end of the day, even if they have to change the rules a thousand times. Anyone that does not realise this is silly.
When you gamble you do not create added value – money simply change hands. If the entire GDP of a country was gambled in the next corner casino, no increase in it would have been achieved, just some gamblers would be losers and would be broke, and some would be winners and wouldn’t believe their luck. But, ultimately, the entire country would stagnate and in time go broke altogether for lack of productive investment.
Let’s be honest: gambling is socially unsound, as we all well know, and promoting it in industrial levels throughout the entire world is hell crazy. Many people chronically blow up their hard earned salary the day they receive it and go home for a hungry family they cannot support. So many people give up altogether working productively and dedicate themselves to the evil thing. Do we not know already all this and a whole lot more? So, what justifies casino gambling?
The only thing that justifies gambling is the taxes that governments charge on it. Like a voucher, the government has from the rotten body of the casino gambling business in the form of taxes and spends them in the community, in social works. To me this strategy looks like trying to give life to a body with the poisoned blood of another.
One day, I believe, people will wake up and casinos will be closed for good and professional gamblers, I hope, put to forced labour. Meanwhile, we have to put up with this outrageous Mr Kakavas who, after waking up from a bad dream, wants his money back from the casino. How bloody ridiculous.
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