Can’t put a tenor on red in NAMA.

Only if I can put a baritone on black. :)

Lost, Oisín, unheard….

There could be shuttle buses from the dole offices.

Except where “the demand is” will be lower income areas where people try for fast wins and gamble away their income or welfare payments.

We’re not talking about making Ireland another Monte Carlo here.

As for creating jobs, casinos don’t flourish in a recession, and when the shine wears off and people realise the odds are stack against them, they’ll close and move on. Take a look at Las Vegas, its been hit worst of all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14747046

Oisín, how terribly noble of you deciding how the least well off in society should spend their money!

Cillian, far be it from me to decide how anyone chooses to spend their money, but I doubt if you went to the richest people in Ireland and asked them how they made their millions the answer would be “Oh we gamble in casinos”. People who have money tend to hold onto it, or invest it in “educated risks” where the odds favour them more than mere chance.

Now I have no clue where you’re from, but I grew up in a welfare suburb of Dublin where most (not all) of the lower income families spend their income/welfare/benefits in the pub or in Paddy Power. I’ve also travelled extensively to places like Reno and Las Vegas for business, and lived in the US and saw first hand the income bracket which frequents casinos there. I can’t say it was a stretch of the imagination to deduce those same people I grew up with will be the casinos primary patrons.

Now I took the liberty of looking at your Twitter profile (hope you don’t mind) but from what I can see (and obviously not knowing your financial/social background), I did may have more experience of lower income families than say your average Corporate Law Graduate doing their LL.B.

But thanks for your sarcasm, it was much appreciated.

Nice, Oisín!

Ah yes, but look at the family-oriented nirvana Atlantic City is today. Oh, wait a minute…

Haven’t we enough vice here already? Between gambling, drink, drugs and prostitution, this island is on a course for destruction.

You call it destruction, I call it a good time. It’s simple: if you don’t like gmabling, don’t bet. If you don’t prositution then don’t be a prostitute or a punter. Saty out of other people’s business.

thats why its a tourist attraction. do’h

Daniel, your argument is flawed. Would you also say that paedophilic rape is “other people’s business”? That’s sick!!

@Irish Pride
‘Daniel, your argument is flawed. Would you also say that paedophilic rape is “other people’s business”? That’s sick!!’

I most definitely do no agree with Daniel but that is kind of nonsensical.
1) The victims (directly) are themselves
2)They’re adults
3)Most of society does it at some point for what is armless craic (again i realise it can escalate)

If ya want to go down the comparison route try Its like letting someone drink but not take heroin. Not great but it might change on a few minds onto our side of the argument.

Also mentioning paedophilia is like comparing someone to Hitler. Sounds like you don’t have a point. Which you do its just sounds bad. Good hunting.

@Liam – Maybe, maybe not. But the point is, it is not for the Government to decide how many the economy can support. Would you say it ought to be up to the Government to decide how many shops, restaurants, cafés the economy can support?

Let the market function, and let the consumer decide what they want to spend their money on. Not some idiot TD.

Don’t like it? The don’t gamble. Stop trying to control other people… We have the Catholic Church and their ideaology of “punishing sin” to thank for this legacy thinking.

Actually Daniel I’m not a god-botherer but this is not related. It’s about societal decay.

I’ve seen first-hand the desperation of daily gamblers, family men on the dole, pumping their money into a bottomless pit of “nearly winning”, and asking for their bus fare home, tears in their eyes, on the same day they got their double dole for Christmas.

I’ve seen families reduced to fist-fights in an attempt to get a gambler away from a machine before the money for the food and clothes is spent. And all the gambling-hall owners do is call security to allow the gambling to continue.

So all the red thumbs to this and my earlier comment, I hope it stays fine for you and your families, but we’ve already seen what hands-off government does to a country.

If this post sounds like a rant, it’s because this sort of “We’re all adults, leave us alone” stuff is uninformed and simplistic, and it makes me sick.

Oh David, I agree completely that gambling is bad.

The reality is people can become addicted to anything. That can be drugs, gambling or even food (over eating), sex… you name it. It’s not a government’s role to control the person. It’s your right to destroy yourself, it’s your life. Just because you’re addicted to something doesn’t absolve you of personal responsibility. Some people win at at life, others fail. This is social darwinism.

At the end of the day, if you’re out of control of yourself then it’s your responsibility to get yourself help but there’s no since taking all the sharp knives out of the drawer just because someone in the canteen likes to cut themselves.

Social darwinism – Darwin would have given Spencer a wedgie for that one. “Some people win at life, others fail”? I hope it stays fine for you and yours.

Daniel, have you a view on Eugenics while you’re at it?

I have a suggestion, give them your address.

The whole project stank to high heaven of brown handers and back envelopes. Hell, Lowry had a hand in it! Crooked as a rams horn! It was never going to be a runner. A project of that scale in the middle of nowhere? NO-one, apart from Lowry, to speak in defense of the casino to the media? No chance.
That said, Ireland would be a prime location to build a super casino. The benefits financially could be enormous. If properly planned and managed, we could have Europes answer to Vegas, and that can’t be a bad thing. Might help us out of the hole we find ourselves in.

Maybe self-contained “autonomous” areas for those not meeting a certain behavioural or educational standard would be a good idea. Get all those brickies back to work to build a huge wall around them. With spikes. And throw enough food over the wall to feed only half of them. That way only the healthiest would survive, saving money on the health service. It’s brilliant. It’ll save us all.

I would suggest that good fortune not to be affected by the societal and familial misery of gambling, or any other potentially addictive activity, would have something to do with it.