As noted last week, now it’ s New York glomming on Las Vegas’s business with talk of a casino-convention complex near JFK Airport. Once lotteries were a ready gambit employed by states to raise revenues—all those dollar entries for Powerball can add up. But now more places go all in, defaulting to unadulterated gambling as a way to generate some jobs-any jobs and create tax base—any tax base.
I have nothing against gambling, but it’s the ultimate consumption based industry at a time when we need to be creating more, consuming less and saving. The casino business does none of the above. You can call it entertainment and a tourist magnet, but it feeds off many people who cannot afford the tab, and now it’s becoming commoditized and headed for a glut.
Casinos could cut it better in our pre-2007 time when ample credit gave everyone carefree license to roll the dice. But today it feeds into psyches hoping for quick fixes to busted finances at a time when average folks can least afford to lose anymore. And as we know, the casino trade is designed to let the house always win. If states and cities can get a piece of that easy action to reduce budget deficits, they are going for it, even if it is less than a zero sum game. So various governors and mayors can tout construction jobs, and the follow on array of service worker employment generated in the hotels and casinos. That can be a heck of a lot simpler than trying to land a high tech company or manufacturer. But is this the way to restore local or regional economic health?
It used to be Nevada was about the only state that offered casino gambling. It was kind of exotic and Wild West, a touch risqu
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Jonathan D. Miller
A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.
