CasinoCityTimes.com

Home
Gaming Strategy
Featured Stories
News
Newsletter
Legal News Financial News Casino Opening and Remodeling News Gaming Industry Executives Search News Subscribe
Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter!
SEARCH NEWS:
Search Our Archive of Gaming Articles 
 

Casinos Feel Lack of Respect Unwarranted

30 September 2002

LAS VEGAS -- As reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal: ``The U.S. casino industry has an image problem that it feels is unwarranted -- and it's downright sensitive about it.

``That was clear among a panel of industry executives at the Global Gaming Expo held the week before last in Las Vegas.

``They said gaming still gets a bad rap after various studies have debunked what they call myths and "junk science" that are negative toward the industry. And that despite positive economic results gaming has generated for numerous casino communities, it's still not fully appreciated, they said.

``The media is especially unkind, particularly newspaper editorial writers, the panelists said.

``Gaming is taken seriously for its food and entertainment and gets fair coverage on business pages, but in what one casino executive referred to as the nebulous area of social journalism, it's a crapshoot.

``Jim Perry, CEO of Argosy Gaming Co., which has casinos in the Midwest and South, said local community leaders talk positively about the industry's economic benefits, but he couldn't think of one Midwestern newspaper supporting the industry on its opinion page.

``…The American Gaming Association, and industry lobbying and support group, opened it's offices seven plus years ago amid critics' cries that gamings cost were higher than it's benefits, noted panelists Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. , president and CEO of the Washington, DC based AGA.

``Critics cited increased crime, bankruptcies, suicides, problem gambling and more -- all weighing down public services. But the 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission report put those claims to rest, he said.

``But gaming opponents still make those claims, he said. It's fine if they want to oppose gaming on moral grounds, but not when they make unsubstantiated, exaggerated claims, he said.

``…MGM Mirage's Feldman said the industry's answer is in `consistency and fact' because gaming will never get the benefit of the doubt…"

< Gaming News