These Milford, Massachusetts anti-Foxwoods Casino protesters carried the day if the project was defeated by voters recently (Image supply: AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Sorry, Foxwoods: it seems you’re not wanted in Massachusetts, either. The Connecticut gambling giant was soundly defeated at the polls this week, as voters in the town of Milford, Massachusetts decided they did not want a casino resort in their backyards.
Three Down for the voter that is( Count
This is becoming a routine story in Massachusetts, where voters rejected proposals in East Boston and Palmer earlier this thirty days. In cases like this, Foxwoods was looking to develop a $1 billion complex in the town that is boston-area compete for that region’s sole casino license.
When the returns that are first coming in, it had been clear that the casino vote wasn’t going to go Foxwoods’ way. CEO Scott Butera quickly conceded defeat once the polls closed, telling casino supporters that the vote meant that plans for the casino would absolutely not be moving forward. Once all the votes were in, the margin had been enormous: 6,361 against the plan, and 3,480 for this, or just around a 65%-35% split.
Foxwoods invested a sizable amount of money marketing the casino, however it ended up beingn’t enough to convince locals that it was a deal that is good the neighborhood economy, apparently. As they promoted the fact that there could be many brand new jobs created and more than $30 million in new revenue for the town, the opposition carried the day.
‘Our city wasn’t for sale,’ stated John Seaver of the group that is anti-casino Milford. ‘They desired to come in and phone the shots, and they almost did. But the people rose up, pushed straight back and overwhelmingly said ‘this town is not for sale.»
Opponents warned that adding a casino resort could increase criminal activity within the town, along with depress property values. That, along side warnings of massive traffic jams, was seemingly enough to convince most residents that are milford vote ‘no’.
According to Butera, though, the real problem is that myths about casino gambling are influencing voters, a lot more than arguments in benefit of creating the resorts.
‘I think people are afraid associated with unknown,’ Butera stated. ‘There’s plenty of myths about what casinos are…they are not these crazy places that are hedonistic. They’re actually very good resorts that have a lot more to do [than] simply games.’
The Milford vote was the final one planned at least for the moment among a series of binding referendums held by towns over whether they would approve casinos built in their towns. Applications can still come in for the three casino licenses and the one slot parlor permit in the state until the end of the however year.
While the results that are recent casino organizations have actually been poor in these votes, other businesses have had more success. Both Wynn Resorts and MGM have successfully had projects approved by their local communities, allowing them to compete for licenses in the Greater Boston Area and Massachusetts that is western. Three towns have backed intends to build smaller slots parlors in their communities, though only one will ultimately get a permit from the state.
Other jobs nevertheless hang within the balance. Mohegan Sun narrowly destroyed a vote to approve a casino in Palmer so narrowly, in reality, that they’re getting a recount that is official of results later this month. Meanwhile, Suffolk Downs in East Boston is thinking about the possibility for altering their plan and placing the entirety of these casino resort in neighboring Revere, which voted in favor of allowing them to build there.
New Jersey Online Gambling Soft Release Isn’t Without Glitches
The New Jersey online casino soft launch has not been without some snafus. Which can be why, ahem, you do soft launches.
New Jersey’s soft launch of their online gambling platform was, for the most part, a success. The games work, the sites are up and running, therefore the verification systems are doing their job. In fact, the only real problem is that those systems were working a little way too hard, as quite a few residents had difficulty proving these were really in brand New Jersey.
We Have Launch…Sort Of
On Nov. 21, the soft launch of the first round of web gambling sites went real time for players located in New Jersey. During the soft launch which is made to weed any bugs out and ensure things were working as planned only about 500 players were permitted for each site. Still, real money play was available, making this the very first time state-regulated online gambling had occurred in New Jersey.
Seven casinos were approved to run websites at the right time of the launch. They included the Borgata, Trump Plaza, the Taj Mahal, the Golden Nugget, Tropicana, Bally’s, and Caesars Atlantic City. Combined, those sites were able to run 14 gambling sites, including a mixture of both casino and online poker sites.
Assuming all goes well in this soft launch period which expands to the ‘real’ launch date of Nov. 26 online gambling will be available to all residents in nj-new jersey avove the age of 21 starting early next week. But according to some customers, there are undoubtedly kinks in the system that still need to be ironed out.
As we reported earlier, the most prevalent problem so far had been also the one that was the most predictable. Numerous people had trouble signing into the sites because of the reality that either the geolocation software getting used couldn’t be certain they were in brand New Jersey, or they certainly weren’t immediately in a position to meet other verification standards so that you can prove their residency.
Inaccessible
For instance, some players tried logging in from various locations and still couldn’t look for a real solution to access any regarding the sites. New Jersey resident Joseph Brennen reportedly attempted to log in from a McDonald’s in Atlantic City, but was told by various web sites that they couldn’t tell where he had been located, or that they didn’t think he was in New Jersey. Then tried driving inland and north about five miles, but nevertheless couldn’t have the sites to recognize he was in the state.
Driving another ten miles inland and attempting to connect from a restaurant also did not produce any results. Though some for the sites now allowed him to register accounts, they still wanted some evidence of residency such as a software application bill he couldn’t immediately provide.
And Brennen ended up beingn’t the just one who went into such problems.
‘I made a small deposit, nevertheless when we attempted to play they said I wasn’t in nj-new jersey,’ said Tina Gonzalez, who had a long call with customer care and saw her computer crash while attempting to create an account up on Caesars’ website. ‘I’m afraid that after they try to do that statewide regarding the 26th, it is going to be mayhem.’
The inability to prove one’s location seemed to be more widespread while few people reported those kinds of technical problems. Even though many industry professionals predicted some social individuals would get locked out of the sites as a result of being very near to the brand new Jersey border, it is unclear why this was occurring up to 10 to 15 miles away from the state’s edges as well.
Ideally, these problems is circumvented by the launch that is hard to come.
‘ The opening that is soft be used to demonstrate to the unit that all systems perform as required under the stress of real time gaming and that operational and revenue reporting controls work well. Staff will continually gauge the progress of each and every platform provider before allowing them to start gaming to the basic public on November 26,’ said DGE Director David Rebuck in a statement.
London’s Hippodrome Brings in Door Dwarves Amidst Controversy
Well-known little person and actor Peter Dinklage is not likely to be applying at the Hippodrome (Image source: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
In a controversial move that could be viewed as exploitative or helpful dependent on your viewpoint who owns the Hippodrome, the casino that is largest in the UK , has put out an advertisement to allow the world know he is looking to hire little individuals as ‘door dwarves’ during the venue for the holidays.
Risking being called a circus carney, the master promoted for the positions in the widely read Metro newspaper, stating that the casino is looking to ‘create a group of Britain’s littlest bouncers Door Dwarves for its entrance that is new in Street.’
Owner Claims Success
According to reports, trials for the initiative, which would introduce a force of individuals 4 feet 10 inches or smaller to man the entrance to the casino, were believed to went ‘fantastically’ well, so when a result, the management at the venue has been convinced to introduce the system on a basis that is full-time.
CEO and president of the casino Simon Thomas, wanting to justify the scheme, told the media that the machine was simply the latest in a long line of dwarf employment opportunities during the Leicester Square casino.
‘The Hippodrome is A london that is phenomenal organization. It opened in 1900 as a interior circus with individuals like Little Titch on the cast,’ explained Thomas, incorporating that legendary P.T. Barnum had circus performer and little person Tom Thumb perform at the place back the day.
‘We had high-diving dwarves whom dived from the mistrals’ gallery 60-feet up into a water tank,’ he added. ‘So they’ve been very part that is much of history associated with place.’
How charming can you get. It’s like Cirque du Soleil, nevertheless the shortstuff version.
Interesting Logic
Since bouncers are typically very large, wide and menacing-looking characters, who the common Joe would rather not to cross, hiring a team of smaller workers does seem such as a strange move for the casino if they’re seeking to deter the riff-raff from causing trouble during the site.
‘Nobody messes with a dwarf, so in a way, they’re very good doorman,’ argued Thomas. ‘They can handle people a lot better than having a human eclipse on the door as some of the clubs do in London. No one will probably select on someone who is below-average height. It’s not quite a macho thing to do, so it is a very good way of managing the doorway.
‘ There isn’t any discrimination at all,’ claimed Thomas, building up to borrow possibly the many over-used phrase of the 21st century to dispute complaints that the place are poking fun at little people. ‘i find we live in a global world of political correctness gone mad.’
But if we are to simply take the viewpoint that the job role isn’t poking fun at little people, should we perhaps take the viewpoint that it’s, at the least, exploiting them? Thomas himself stated that the initiative is ‘building on the heritage that is rich of entertainment’ so clearly it’s not just their unintimidating stature which he wants to utilize.
‘I have always been attempting to run a tremendously entertaining that is large and I also have lot of different people with a lot of different skills,’ explained the Hippodrome president. ‘we have chosen those skills and physical attributes that are appropriate to that work. They truly are very professional and have to begin it.’