Long-popular casinos continue to open across North America but at least one highly qualified observer makes a good point: casinos are not like Starbucks. You can’t have one or two on every corner.
So says David Cordish, which may be ironic since his company is opening the huge Maryland Live! Casino in Arundel Mills.
In an interview with the Associated Press, he warns the expansion of casino gambling can’t go on unchecked forever. A big problem is the attitude of politicians nationwide who view casinos as free money.
"I don’t know how we can control the politicians; they certainly don’t understand the word ‘oversaturation,’" Cordish said. "They think you can have casinos like Starbucks."
If that attitude continues, Cordish said, "it’s going to implode on them."
Ironically, his Baltimore-based Cordish Co. may be contributing to the oversupply by building a $500 million casino at the Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, Md. Opening is scheduled for June 6.
The expansion of casino gambling has continued rapidly over the last several years, nowhere more fiercely than in the Northeast.
"There is serious disagreement within the industry as to whether the market is oversaturated or whether there is room for further growth," says the Press of Atlantic City. But most observers agree on one point: It is tougher to do business in the Northeast casino market than it ever has been before.
By David Wilkening
