Word: slotted
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Only last fall, the Maryland activists quashed casino-company efforts to turn Baltimore into a new Atlantic City, despite $1.3 million in industry campaign contributions to state legislators. But the gambling interests returned, with bills to allow slot machines at racetracks. "We're tightening the perimeter," says Grey, pacing the meeting hall. "If they penetrate the racetracks, the next step is slots in restaurants! Just today I got a call from New Hampshire: the legislature killed two bills to allow slots at dog tracks...
...have legalized casinos, while 37 have embraced lotteries, lured by the prospect of easy money in hard fiscal times. And the games have begun to crossbreed: lottery agencies have added instant-cash video poker and keno games, racetracks have expanded into off-track betting, and grocery shops have installed slot machines. Overall, Americans gambled away more than $40 billion last year--up from $10.4 billion in 1982. On casinos alone, more was spent than on movie tickets, theater, opera and concerts combined...
Perhaps so, but there's rough water ahead. Moves are afoot in nine states, from Arkansas to Oregon, to place pro-gambling initiatives on the November ballot. The domino effect puts pressure on elected officials: Pennsylvania and Maryland racetracks watch their dollars drain into Delaware, which installed slot machines last September at two tracks; Tennessee envies the tax revenue reaped by Mississippi's Tunica County, thanks to Memphis gamblers; and New York is readying a constitutional amendment that will allow its slot hogs--who are now flocking to the Pequot Indians' Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut--to spend their money...
...record on spurring nongambling economic growth is so spotty. Local restaurants are often squeezed out by cheap in-house casino eateries. Atlantic City, New Jersey, lost about a third of its retail businesses after casinos moved in and former customers gambled away their discretionary dollars. In South Dakota, when slot machines were legalized to revive the Black Hills resort of Deadwood, the three car dealerships, the hardware store, the clothing shop and the local Taco Bell all converted into mini-casinos--a more lucrative business, gutting the town's retail base...
After winning its Tuesday-night time slot on its first outing, Carvey's show slipped to third place last week--though he still scored No. 1 with the coveted market of men ages 18 to 49. Many of them are in that key demographic group that likes to think of itself as ad resistant. But for these cynics with disposable income, advertisers have been devising below-the-radar approaches for years, come-ons that are harder to detect and resist than dancing tacos or Liz galumphing through The Nanny. These are all the rebel ads and anti...