February 03, 2007

Horse 714 - Super Casino

News reports indicate that Britain's first "Super Casino" (It's Super, so it must be good) has been awarded not to the city of London or Blackpool but Manchester. The people of Blackpool who have been the hotbed of slot machines now for the past 60 years are a bit disappointed, but the area of Manchester that the proposed casino is to be built is an area that is currently a bit run down.

Perhaps the people who live in the run down areas decided that they needed a few new shiny things and that the new casino will make the place a bit pretty what with all the coloured lights etc. Are these people who live in these areas expecting to get rich from it? By playing the machines? I can see how this will work.

It seems to me that the only people who can afford to gamble are those who come from a non-run down area, and they'll lose their money sp it effectively means that while these people lose their money to the one armed bandits, that the rest of Manchester will tend towards being run down. Still, it will be the first time that a lot of them will have actually seen fruit.

It is rather a bit of a mixed message though isn't it? If the government is seen to be tough on crime and the causes of crime, then this doesn't help their cause. A Casino after all is a form of organised crime, it just happens to be a form of very very slow theft.
I understand how poker machines work. Basically you put your money in and then you geta bit of a lights display and a crap show for about 20 seconds and then you realise that the money you just inserted is gone. Eventually you can delightfully fritter away your paycheque, car, house, family etc and be free of these things... hmm, that's not a good thing is it?

The Millenium Dome Consortium will apply for a judicial review of the decision to approve the casino for Manchester and meanwhile the people of Blackpool wil just write a nasty letter... inside a stick of rock candy.

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