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Casinos have become a large part of cities' economy and hundreds of thousands ofpeople's lives. Casinos are exciting for many people who feel they have a chance to winit big. Because so much money is flowing into casinos, the local business are beingaffected. Most are not thriving with the new tourism and the seemingly revivedeconomy.In 1994 more people made the trip to a casino then to a ball park (Popkin). The casinosare attracting so much of American's dollars that they spent less on books, music albumsand attractions (Reed).

The people are spending less money outside of the casino. Which is nothelpingthe vast majority of local businesses. This is what is most often overlooked by the city.The money from tourists and the community is not going into the local businesses, but

instead the casino. Robert Goodman, Urban Planning professor states: "Newly openedcasinos suck money out of the local economy, away from existing movie theaters,cardealerships, clothing shops and sports arenas" (Popkin). Casinos take money away fromexisting businesses. In Atlantic City, where casinos were supposed to save their failingeconomy, over 900 of their 2,100 small businesses have closed and the number ofrestaurants was reduced from 243 to 146. By providing everything a person needs, thecasinos are designed to keep people inside. The truth is casinos drain money out of an

area into a far away bank account, most often never going back into the community.Casino revenues may look good on paper to the average person, and to politicians who areconstantly being pushed to gain more revenue. In reality they are almost a nightmare tothe small locally owned businesses. Jobs are one of the main reasons for the growth ofcasinos.

Across the continent casinos have created tens of thousands of jobs forunemployed people (Clines). Indian casinos in Minnesota have created approximately5,000 jobs. Between 1975 and 1992 employment in Atlantic City's service industr

y grew608 percent, a significant part of this came from casinos which created 95 percent of thenew jobs. The casinos increased construction jobs ninety three percent, and created 600new transportation jobs (Reed). Over all casinos provide many new jobs for an area.Construction jobs decline when the casino is completed. The jobs will decline as demandfor their services drops off. During the same time period of 1975 to 1992 manuf

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acturingjobs were down eighty-four percent. Real estate, insurance, and financial employment fellforty one percent (Reed). While some jobs increased others declined because ofthe shiftof demand for certain jobs. Casinos may help some jobs but harm others.

Even with casinos Atlantic City has the highest unemployment in New Jersey. Areason for this is that the casino jobs went to people who moved in from out ofstate, notto the people the casino was built to help (Reed). Casinos create many new jobs andopportunities for the people around the area. If the jobs are supposed to be there to helpthe state's unemployment, the state government should do a better job of givingthe jobsto people in the state. The jobs do not help the state's unemployment if they hire workersfrom out of state. This defeats one of the main reasons for building a casino.This ishaving a visible economic impact on different people.