Thursday, October 20, 2022

Gambling Our Way To Prosperity

I suppose I thought we'd get beyond politicians who think "New York City is an unpopular shithole, what it really needs is a casino to revitalize it!" by the year of our Gritty, 2022, but our political class really do have their brains stuck in like 1987.
Now one of the city’s biggest commercial developers is pitching something that Times Square does not have: a glittering Caesars Palace casino at its core.
And some catnip for the cop Mayor, who I was reliably informed is the future of the Democratic party.
In a copy of a letter soliciting support for the casino, which was obtained by The New York Times, the companies promised to use a portion of the casino’s gambling revenues to fund safety and sanitation improvements in Times Square, including by deploying surveillance drones.
Maybe give Trump the casino license. Not a bad idea if it'll make him go away, otherwise. Just promise to bail him out every couple of years. Fairly standard for urban casinos, as the business of "just taking money from people" is hard, for some reason.