'The Casino Effect'

“Slot machines are known as the crack cocaine of new gamblers. When you bring in [thousands of slots] in a big place like Miami, you are going to hook tens of thousands of people, many of whom have never gambled before.” -Professor John Warren Kindt, as quoted in the Feb. 2012 issue of Biscayne Times.
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If a casino is built on the land the Miami Herald building now occupies, what would be the effect on Miami?

In the February issue of Biscayne Times, Erik Bojnansky writes, "according to Professor John Warren Kindt, [casinos are] destructive, always and without exception."

Kindt

According to Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy at the University of Illinois, the City of Miami will experience a burst of economic activity if the Genting Group, a Malaysian-based corporation, wins the right to build Resorts World Miami, a $3.8 billion casino complex where the Miami Herald building and Omni Mall now stand.

“Generally there is a bump lasting about two to three years,” says Kindt, who has studied casinos for two decades. “There are new construction jobs and a lot of activity as money is coming in.”

But Kindt warns that the bump won’t last: “Once the project is completed, and slot machines come in, [the casino] takes everything.”
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Kindt also says that casino games such as poker, blackjack, and roulette are merely “window dressing” designed to draw in players. Slot machines, which include video poker and other electronic gambling machines, are at the heart of all casinos. “Every slot machine brings in a minimum of $100,000 a year,” he asserts. “Slot machines don’t create jobs -- you just dust them off. And that’s 90 percent of the money.” According to Kindt, most of that slot-machine money comes from middle-class and poor individuals living near casinos.

Click here to read the full article in Biscayne Times.