CASINO POLITICS
Keith Crosby, General Manger of Palace Casino, said that dark and windowless places are just folklore of thoughts that has people coming to his business regularly.
Miss. casinos have been a trending topic since 1920. The state, known as the “Bible Belt,” had to determine whether gambling would be approved. The religious believers were opposed and the other residents in different counties were for it.
“ I would vote for Casino’s, it would be hard for me for me to explain it to my church, but casinos have done Mississippi well,” Senator Sollie B. Norwood of District 28 said.
In 1990, Miss. Gambling Control Act was passed and it open doors for not only Miss. Residents and Choctaw Indians.
“ One thing that the state leaders were aware of, was that there were a lot of mixed feelings about gambling in the state,” Royal Walker Jr., Executive Director of Miss. Gambling Commission said.
The state had exhausted all the various perspectives of trying to generate increase revenue that was affecting health services and infrastructure. The public was given polls to decide. Different groups were formed to try to slow down the speed of casinos.
The lawmakers decide to pass dockside gambling in 1990 and Harrison County was the first to be perceptive. The political opposition did not have time to organize before the legislation.
“ 89 percent of some legislators district were supportive, but you had legislators who still voted against it,” Walker said.
According to Dean Mitchell at the University of Mississippi, the state did not want to fully admit that they were for casinos because that would mean that they were supporter of gambling.
The for Riverboat Gambling states that the it is required that the lawmakers present a referendum in counties where operators submit a proposal for gambling and opponents gather petitions with at least 1,500 valid signatures within 60 days. If the proposal is unopposed the person making it goes through a background check.
“ Although the legislator passed the bill, it is up to the people in the area to approve the casino in its area,” Walker said.
If the particular town had a majority oppose then there was no way to build in the area. Every year the lawmakers have the power to ask the area again, but nothing can be enforced over its residents.
Miss. created a lot of confusion and debates because once they got laws passed for casinos, lawmakers made bills to pass lotteries.
“ No I am not sure we will ever see both lottery and casinos running here in our state,” Senator Norwood said.
He said that bills were made and may have passed in the House of Representative, but failed in the Senate. In session, the legislator tries to take care of relative issues during the political process.
“I would choose lottery over casino gaming, because it’s easier to monitor,” Walker said.
Many casinos main focus is to enforce the laws and monitor the casinos to avoid corruption. There hasn’t been a high percentage of corruption when you look at the gaming systems in Mississippi, according to Walker.
The casinos have provided jobs that have been beneficial. The casinos in areas like Biloxi, Vicksburg, and Tunica have generated money that helps the economy. $13 million payroll dollars, $3 million going toward the cities government, $4 million goes towards taxes, and $16 million in goods and service are the revenue funds that Mississippi saw in the first legalized existing casinos around.
“ We make our casino comfortable that’s why people come here,” Keith Crosby, General Manager for Palace Casino resort said.
The expectation for casinos is now becoming popular in hotels, as they get popular here in the south. There have been some owners who have opened businesses right beside a long-standing casino.
“ It doesn’t make since to create a business if you can not pay for it,” said Crosby.
According to the Sun Hearld, Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi shut down, September 15, 2014, because they had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Leaving 380 workers unemployed. The workers continue to get paid up until the 19th of September.
“ What people have to understand is that the future of gaming is not just about how many casinos there are, but the amenities,” Crosby said.
Mitchell said, that the lawmakers did not put a limit on how many casinos there could be within the state. The politicians did not put a limit on the number of casino licenses a person can have.
“ You could look at how the framer built these laws that is was more of a free market. As long as you could prove that you could pay for the casino you were approved,” Mitchell said.
According to Senator Norwood, revenue from casinos is not targeted to a curtain fund in Mississippi. All the money is put in a general fund and the politicians and lawmakers have the ability to suggest and motion where money should go.
“States like Ala. and N.J. have a direct budget line that their casino money goes towards like education and senior citizen support,” Crosby said.
Because Mississippi is trying to climb itself out of poverty, the casino money can go where it is needed as long as it stays within the budget.
“ We base everything off budget priority and leaders in the state can suggest to redirect the money.
Leislatures decided to pass this bill to see a economic development growth by the rivers to bring in revenue.
“ Casinos are beneficial to the state and they are meant to be harmful in friendly areas. We would never want to be perceived as compulsive,” Crosby said.
(Tisha Coleman)
MISSISSIPPI GAMING COMMISSION
Casinos. Glitz. Glamour. Big money. Jackpot. Card-counting. Mobsters. Mississippi?
The Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC) strives to enforce fair and safe gaming within the state, which has a thriving casino industry.
In 1990, the Mississippi Gaming Control Act was passed into legislation. The act was approved for Mississippi counties along the Mighty Mississippi River in order to be a revenue advantage for what is one of the poorest states in the country.
One of the challenges during the early stages of Mississippi gambling was setting rules and regulations for the casinos to follow. The first Director of the MGC, Royal Walker Jr., recalled that the state received guidance in creating these regulations from established gambling institutions in Nevada and New Jersey.
“The spirit was, among law enforcement, that we wanted to do it correctly and right,” Walker said.
As time has passed, the gambling industry has increased in the state of Mississippi. The MGC now regulates 28 casinos in 6 different counties. It is the responsibility of the MGC to enforce rules, conduct background checks on casino employees, and investigate injustice within the state gambling industry.
“It is the same as the FBI,” Tunica Field Agent Scott Kistler said. “We finger print [potential employees] here, but the prints get sent to the FBI, and they do a background check.”
One way the MGC encourages fairness of the games within the casinos is by requiring that licensed independent testing labs approve all games. Every slot machine in the state goes through these labs and is tested to make sure they have a theoretical payback of 80 percent. This means that during the lifetime of a machine, that machine must pay back at least 80 percent of every dollar a patron spends. Table games are regulated as well but not quite as strictly.
“Games like blackjack, craps, and roulette kind of have their own inherent odds,” Deputy Director of the MGC, Jay McDaniel said. “If a casino wanted to try a variation to that game, that goes to the lab as well.”
The Mississippi Gaming Commission is able to regulate casinos effectively by providing MGC field offices in Tunica, Vicksburg, and Biloxi. The agents in the field offices work closely with casino security and surveillance teams to prevent and respond to crime.
Some of the most common crimes associated with casinos in general include theft and cheating. Tunica field office agents note that casino employees rather than patrons more commonly commit theft. Kistler notes that employee theft is even more common during the holidays when people tend to need more money. He goes on to say that those who attempt theft are caught quickly due to the intense surveillance within the casino.
To prevent cheating, the MGC relies on tips from casinos within the state as well as national warnings about rings of players who are suspected of cheating. It is common for gaming industries around the country to share tips about well-known cheating rings.
Cheating can include anything from card counting to hiding chips. Casino surveillance teams have a list of these suspects on hand and are ready to act should a situation involving these individuals arise.
“The easiest way to catch them is to know ahead of time that that is what they are there to do,” McDaniel said.
Regulating the money that comes into the state from casinos is another task overseen by the Mississippi Gaming Commission. The money that a casino makes strictly through the gambling industry, not through the hotels or restaurants on the property, is called gaming revenue. Casinos are audited by the Mississippi Department of Revenue as well as the MGC and are required to give the state 8.8 percent of their total gaming revenue. Another 3.2 percent of the casinos’ gaming revenue is given to the local governments of counties that have casinos. This money can be split up however the local government officials decide.
According to the Associate Commissioner of the Department of Revenue, Jan Craig, casinos in the state have contributed $247.8 million in gaming taxes to both the state and local governments within the last fiscal year. $36 million of this goes into a Bond Sinking Fund annually, and the remaining $127.7 million for the state goes into a General Fund that supports various state agencies.
The Mississippi Gaming Control Act was passed in order to help the state and its citizens by generating revenue. While the MGC was created to enforce statewide casino rules, a major priority has always been and continues to be the people living in Mississippi. The MGC mission statement says that they strive to “ensure the integrity of the State of Mississippi and maintain the public confidence in the gaming industry.
“The ultimate goal was to make sure that whatever we did that we protect the interest of people in the community and the state,” Walker said.
(Caroline Callaway, Alane Parris, Clancy Smith)
SOCIAL EFFECTS OF GAMBLING
Addiction can happen in many different ways, especially when it comes to gambling addiction.
“I think it’s a different case for everyone. Some people will not get help until they are absolutely in the last stages of gambling,” Betty Greer, Executive Director of the Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling, said.
“Gamblers go through some pretty distinct phases. Where at first they win money but after a time of that winning stage they move into what they call the losing stage and even further into a more desperation or hopeless state and when they get into that part, they never win,” Stuart Milan, Board of Directors member for The Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling, said.
“They [gamblers] think that they are going to get out of it [the addiction], that they are going to stop at their next win,” Milan said.
“They never get that win that is going to solve all their problems, although they think they are going to get it, so that is their mindset,” Milan said.
According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also known as CAMH, gamblers tend to lose control over how much money and time they spend gambling in casinos.
“Eventually every gambler will gamble away every dollar they have and still be in debt,” Greer said.
“If it was just about the money, once they got the money, they would stop but it’s about the action and the feeling that they get,” Greer said.
“Many of the same people frequent this casino and you start to know people on a first name basis,” Tim Johnson, the Cage Director at the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, said.
“You can see the distraught emotions of some of these people who gamble here, especially those who lose on a big scale. It is sometimes hard to see the reactions of these people but they do not stop coming back, even after they lose so much,” Johnson said.
Although addiction can be a hard struggle to overcome, there are many options for gamblers in order to get the help they need.
“I am a firm believer in the 12 step recovery base. That is the way people get better from this. Along with supportive therapy or treatment if necessary,” Milan said.
“People, a lot of times, do not quit the first time they try to quit,” Milan said.
“We have the 24 hour toll free helpline that is manned by certified compulsive gambling counselors, mastered degreed people who are very knowledgeable and able to provide information as well as crisis counseling to individuals who call the helpline,” Greer said.
CAMH informs individuals about how frequent casino goers begin to isolate themselves from others, including their families, and that gambling can also create emotional, physical, and mental health issues.
“A lot of times we will have family members that are concerned about their loved ones that will call the helpline and they will want information and access to resources in the area and that is one of the things the hotline does,” Greer said.
“Recovering, peoples families are generally very forgiving. They are mad at first but they usually just want the person to do well in life,” Milan said.
“You have to be honest, you have to tell people what is going on with you. If you continue to mislead your family members about what you have actually done you probably are doomed to repeat it again,” Milan said.
“Among gamblers, gamblers probably have the highest rate of suicide, the highest rate of divorce, and their spouses have a high rate of suicide because there is so much hopelessness,” Greer said.
“Also there is so much guilt. It is sort of a hidden kind of addiction. People are ashamed to admit that they have this problem,” Greer said.
“They can’t control their gambling. It’s not like a person who has an alcohol or a drug problem because there are no physical outward signs. When you just sit down and look at someone and talk with someone you don’t really know if they have a gambling problem until you delve into the family issues that they are having, problems they are having, and the financial issues they are having,” Greer said.
(Sarah Brumback)