Horseshoe Casino is one of the most popular casinos in Louisiana, even though it is not officially classified as a casino. The floating hotel brings in a lot of Vegas style entertainment, and the facilities are huge, luxurious and entertaining. There are other floating casinos that are smaller and somewhat shabbier. It is indeed interesting how the appetite for gambling goes beyond the law, at time, when gambling is referred to as “gaming” and becomes legal.
The same thing occurred years ago, in the 1960, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Gambling was legal there at first, but in time the laws changed, and gambling had to become gaming in order for it to be legalized.
Like Louisiana, in some states, gaming is restricted to “riverboats” -- large, multi-story barges that more often than not are permanently moored in a body of water. Other states allow casinos to be on dry land, but restrict their numbers. In America alone, there are 450 commercial casinos, producing gross gaming revenue of nearly $29 billion in 2004.
Some American Indian tribes opt to create casinos on tribal land to provide employment and revenue. Revenues totaled an astonishing $14.5 billion in 2002 from 354 casinos. Everywhere in the world, one way or another gambling or gaming is possible. Although many participate in this as a form of recreation or even as a means to gain an income, gambling, like any behavior that involves variation in brain chemistry can become a psychologically addictive and harmful behavior in some people. Sadly, some who may indulge, persist in gambling even after repeated losses.
The Russian writer Dostoevsky portrays in his novel “The Gambler” the psychological implications of gambling and how gambling can affect gamblers. He also associates gambling and the idea of “getting rich quick,” suggesting that Russians may have a particular affinity for gambling. It is fascinating that all over the world we grade gambling into “harmless” types such as lottery, and “less desirable” types, such as casinos, and promote one but ban the other.
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