Online Casinos Directory

Gambling today cannot take a hit of any kind. The market has been struggling all over the world and gambling casinos aren’t bringing in the same numbers they once did. It is imperative that they make the most of every moment of gambling and bring in the best numbers possible. Casino operators are pushing for the best games and promotions, hoping that may be enough to bring in the gaming numbers needed to sustain themselves. Part of the biggest issue though is that the unemployment rate is still high. There are still millions of Americans who are on the unemployment lines and this is stifling the growth. If people don’t have the funds needed to fuel into the market, then the market is going to continue to wither. The main thing that the government is focused on is building new jobs to employ the market. Though some companies are offering new positions and jobs, a lot more aren’t. People are still filing bi-weekly to the Department of Employment Security for a small percentage of their former paychecks. As long as people are on unemployment to pay bills, they aren’t going to have the funds to start gambling again.

The unemployment issue is stifling the market of gambling and putting a serious consideration into the world of casino operators. They have to take a wait-and-see attitude in a lot of ways. They can only hope that governments continue to create programs that will push businesses to open the doors for new positions and hiring. Businesses are responding slowly and that possibly could be the real reason why gaming companies are moving just as slowly. Operators are cutting back on their jobs too, but also pushing the bounds of promotions and bonuses. They want to turn things around but can’t without some serious changes in the market. Remember that casinos are solely dependent on people’s discretionary funds and if they don’t have that, then the market won’t have anything to help spur it on to a better situation. Casino operators are left to wait for things to turn around and hopefully that will happen sooner than later.

Atlantic City is in trouble. It is no secret that the gambling Mecca suffered huge losses over the course of the recession. Though it took a while for things to get settled, the recession is now officially over but Atlantic City is none the better. In fact, it is still looking for ways to cut back. The most recent was a layoff of over 1,300 workers in the casinos. The reason for the layoffs was because of the lack of revenue from slots and table games in many consecutive months. This is horrible news for the casinos in the area that were hoping the market changes would return them to their pre-recessionary numbers. Unfortunately it was not meant to happen that way. Now there may be more problems brewing for the location. It seems that Pennsylvania casinos are cutting in on Atlantic City revenues, which is something the gambling center may not be able to stomach.

Employees in the area are expected to start looking to Pennsylvania for employment, rather than staying in the Atlantic City direct area. Not only did Atlantic City layoff a group of workers earlier, but they recently sent out a notice that more workers may be in the same boat if things don’t improve substantially in the near future. Pennsylvania is offering the most competition right now. Not only did it open a huge casino, Sugarhouse Casino, recently, but that casino has seen a huge amount of activity. It is a premiere location that rivals the casinos in Atlantic City easily and people are aware of it. They know that Sugarhouse offers some of the best slots games in the market and offers a much wider variety of them than Atlantic City does. Though it is a farther drive, it isn’t far enough that avid gamblers won’t make the trek. Plus with the bonus of new games, it isn’t difficult to see why they would want to make the move. Atlantic City has long been declining and now things are coming to a head for the area. Only time will tell if it is able to rally or if the casinos in the area will officially fall to the competition.

One of the biggest problems the recession created was the jobless rate. Record numbers were reached during the height of the recession and now, though it is months later, little improvement has been made. Some economies have seen their double-digit unemployment rates come down to single digits, but that is still not good enough news for many analysts. They believe that until the rate is closer to what its average was pre-recession, the economy of the US will still be in trouble. Despite the negative result of a high unemployment rate, there are still some nascent signs of improvement. One such improvement is from an unexpected source.

It seems that the very thing that is highly controversial to the market—gambling—is what is bringing the hope for new jobs. Take Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware for example. The states just approved table games and that is opening up a new job market. More gambling tables means the need for more employees to manage them. Whether it is a dealer to manage a table, or just wait staff to handle the increase in patrons, it still means that there are more jobs on the horizon of the job market. One state that is creating a lot of jobs is Pennsylvania. Experts reported that over 4,400 jobs have been created due to the result of approving and allowing table games. The state admits its new need for clerks, dealers, security and managers to handle the substantial increase in business. The question is, is it all worth it?

A resounding “yes” is the answer. Analysts have estimated that slot machines in the state are scheduled to bring in over $116 million in tax-revenue dollars this month alone. Though that could be a record number due to the newness of the market, it still is indicative of an overall increase in revenue. Pennsylvania is not going to deny that increase in revenue, even if it is exaggerated due to the circumstances. If you add to that the advantage of having over four-thousand people out of the unemployment line, it means a great advantage for the residents overall.

It was last November when the voting public in Ohio approved of four casinos in four major cities within the state. Part of their main reasoning for bringing casinos in was the potential job creation. During the recession one of the biggest problems was the heightened unemployment rate. No matter how hard the economy rallied, the unemployment rate continued to move up. Most US cities experienced a rate that was well into the double digits and some states even moved into the forty percent range at their worst. The difficulties posed made it hard for residents of the state of Ohio to say no when given the issue of building four mega-sized casinos.

Now that the four casinos are on their way to being a reality, developers are voicing their committment to hiring locals only for positions available once the casinos open. In addition, they are also saying that they will be hiring only local contractors and developers to build the casinos. This is carrying through with their former promise and proving to be welcomed news for all of the state’s residents. Most are still in some form of unemployment, or working only part time. They want to find permanent full time positions to carry them through their monthly bills and help them to meet their budgets. It will take some time for them to get the former levels of income pre-recession and this is a great start to helping them move forward financially.

Expect coming months to bring more and more jobs to the area. Hopefully, people will also come in and gamble at the four casinos. History has shown that just because they build it, doesn’t necessarily mean that people will come in and support it. Las Vegas’ City Center is a classic example of how difficult it can be to spur in new customers to casinos. City Center is MGM’s billion-dollar development that came along with much hoopla and buzz, but it has failed to reach the revenue needed to help developers make back their investment. It has underperformed and many of the condominiums at the location remain vacant. Ohio is still waiting for a different story though. Ohio officials want people to come in and help build up the state’s economy. Only time will tell what will happen.

The President Casino in St. Louis, Missouri had bad news for its employees earlier this month. The casino closed down completely on July 1st and that of course meant that the 200 workers employed there moved to the unemployment line. It was a difficult time to watch because the workers rallied so hard prior to the beginning of the month to save their jobs. They consistently picketed outside the venue in the hopes that they would gain enough public support to turn things around. The employees were not just hoping for the casino operators to change their minds. They realistically understood that due to the economy and the lowered revenue, it may be impossible for the casino to stay open. What they were hoping for though was to be reassigned to one of the parent company’s other casinos in the area. That never happened and it has left two hundred workers scrambling.

Pinnacle Entertainment owned the President Casino and also is owner of a wide range of other casinos in the state. Employees of the President Casino hoped that their union would help them to fight for their jobs—even if it meant moving to a different location. The best the casino owners could do was to hold a job fair for workers and encourage them to move outside of their comfort zones for future employment. If employees are placed elsewhere, it will be by their own doing. Also, employees will not necessarily be able to move to lateral positions. For example, a manager at one casino may not be hired as manager at another casino. He or she may end up as a cashier or other position outside of management.

Pinnacle Entertainment continues to commit to helping the workers with job placement. They are hoping that it will help to ease the strain of losing their jobs. Officials of the company reiterated their hope to find all their former employees with better positions elsewhere. It may take some time, but hopefully employees will have the resources to move to other jobs quickly, without having to fall back on unemployment or other forms of help.

SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia is being promoted as a positive change for the community. It was a few years back that the casino’s operators were debating over opening the casino in the first place. They opted for the change and it was decided upon due to its struggling economy. Philadelphia’s economy was as ravished as other states in the US. Since the recession is has been hard for all states to recover and legislators in Philadelphia know it. They debated, but almost immediately approved the building of sugarhouse. Part of the main reason was because of the job opportunities the new casino would create. The biggest problem with the economy a few months ago was the heightened unemployment rate. Millions of Americans were left without money-making opportunities. Even the President spoke of unemployment being the biggest problem the US had to deal with.
Building a casino in the state had a dual purpose—to bring in millions in tax-revenue and also to create jobs for residents. The public stood behind the changes and approved of the casino. It was soon on the way to becoming a reality. Now, September is still the month it is expected to be fully functioning. Mayor Michael Nutter was at the location recently to approve of its final steel beam lifting. It marked a momentous occasion in the history of the state. Not only is it a sign to the people that a new economy has begun, it also means that people have hope that they now have ways to support themselves.

So far experts are citing a growth of 800 jobs in the state as a result of SugarHouse. They note that the casino will eventually have over 1,500 slot machines to work with. This most likely means that they will need more workers soon to come into the casino and operate it. Depending on its success, it could mean more than a few hundred jobs to be brought to the community. Things are looking good for the state and legislators are excited about coming months and how gambling will play an important role in the state’s economy.

 Gambling is being debated all over the world. There are pros and cons to the issue and many legislators are squaring against each other. On one hand some believe that gambling is the perfect way to bring money into their jurisdictions. The recession left cities and states everywhere at a loss when it comes to bringing in money to overcome hefty deficits and huge budgets. Governments have already used gambling and are experimenting with legalities of the industry to best suit not only them, but also to best suit consumers. That is a difficult problem legislators are going through now– how to profit off of gambling without jeopardizing the people who partake in it.

One country that is looking positively to gambling is Ireland. While other countries are worried that gambling will help to usher in a huge problem for the public, this country isn’t one of them. In fact, Ireland is looking at the online casino industry as an opportunity to create much needed jobs and boost the economy. Ireland’s Gaming and Leisure Association has asked the government to pass legislation that will draw online casino operators to Ireland. It says that favourable legislation for online gambling will create an estimated 10,000 jobs in the IT and financial services sectors as well as support services such as accountancy, taxation, advertising and legal services. The report says that regulation of online gambling could generate in the region of $68 million per year.

Should the US follow the Irish example, jobs and revenues would be 100 times more than those estimated for Ireland. But in the US there is strong resistance to gambling in some sectors of society. These are mostly on “moral” grounds and even with recession on the horizon and unemployment figures rising, the attitude is not about to change. Previously Ireland allowed its residents to participate in online gambling and without the necessary regulations, some online gambling operators have taken advantage of the unsuspecting consumers. With the proposed regulations in place, online gambling will become that much safer for the Irish public.  Online gambling operators would be very pleased to move their operations to a country like Ireland where skilled IT staff and a well-developed IT infrastructure is already in place. Unlikeother countries that are still in the planning stages, Ireland is well atuned to the world of technology.

Because gambling is one of the most popular projected up-and-coming industries for 2010, many states are rushing to make moves to find their own laws. US News and World Report has named the gaming manager job as one of the fifty best careers in 2010. That is because with the increasing number of casinos comes an increasing number of jobs. For example, Missouri, Florida, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and California all have gone through expansions regarding gambling and casinos. Each one noted its growth in job possibilities and how the moves are working to turn around the unemployment issue that all states are facing.

In past years, Las Vegas and Atlantic City were considered gambling hubs of the US. People from far and wide went through travel complexities to visit the gambling meccas and as a result, both cities were fueled by gambling activities. Now that deficits are so hefty in all states, they are all looking to gambling as a way of bringing in money.

On the down side, states still realize that they can’t rely solely on casinos to help them turn around their economic crises. Some states are making the mistake of already counting on gambling money that they don’t have and portioning it out for various programs. They are trying to project what their potential revenues could be and then earmark the money for development, planning, expansion, public works programs, jobs and education. This is a bold move and most economists and analysts believe it may come back and haunt lawmakers.

Legislators however, are pushing hard to make the gambling initiatives work. Those looking to bring gambling to their state are citing not only money, but also the increase in jobs as a positive aspect of the move. While unemployment rates continue to rise in other industries, casino owners are hiring employees for their new casinos on an almost daily basis. Casino totals are expected to grow exponentially throughout the coming 2010 year. US News projected that employment will grow by 12% by the year 2018. The best part of the gaming projections is that it is a low-education job creation possibility. Training is on-the-job and not more than a high school diploma is needed to get a job in the industry.  That is good news for the huge amount of unemployed Americans who find themselves in need of jobs and without a lot of formal training. It could be a solution to the problems the recession created for America.

Casino gambling is one of the hottest new industries around. Despite the recession, it is one of the few that hasn’t seen a notable drop in patronage. While the lending, car manufacturing and housing crashes happened, gambling stuck strong.  One gaming analyst, Martin Beamon said, “The face of gambling changed throughout the recession in that people started flocking towards the penny-slots and smaller-limit machines, rather than the high-roller tables…however, gambling itself had a relatively unchanging amount of customers. It surprised everyone.”

The performance of gambling startled everyone. Although huge industries fell, gambling didn’t. Las Vegas noted a decline in tourism and that caused a fall in revenues, but in terms of local casinos, they did well. Beamon added, “States released their numbers and they were stable…although the Las Vegas market is down by 60% and tribal-owned casinos were also down, local casinos and internet gambling both stayed stable and popular among patrons.” One of the biggest drivers of performance for gambling came from the general increase in legalizing and regulating gambling that most states are currently going through. They see how lucrative gambling is and the recession left them with huge deficits. Gambling is seen as a viable option to bring in revenues. One expert said, “For every month the US does not legalize gambling, they are losing millions of dollars.”

So far the US is still wrestling with the UIGEA of 2006. It was a law that banned financial institutions from allowing gambling money to be withdrawn or deposited. Banks were tasked with watching their transactions and flagging any that came directly from online gambling activities. Banks were not happy with the move and most made a fowl sweep of any activity that came even close to gambling. Legal activities that were affiliated with lotteries and sports betting were in danger of being flagged by banks, and many were. The funds were confiscated or at minimum, held from winners. What the UIGEA actually showed was its limitations and lack of proper rhetoric in terms of defining what gambling actually is. Many lawmakers are currently working to revamp the UIGEA and write amendments that will make it more relevant and poignant to the US market.  

Part two coming next.