You never see a sports book downsize, do you?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/2435678,CST-SPT-chad27.article

Gambling industry alive and well

COUCH SLOUCH | Day at sports book shows us that state of economy doesn't matter

June 27, 2010

BY NORMAN CHAD

LAS VEGAS -- On another 100-degree day in the desert, I am taking the temperature of America while sitting in the Rio Casino sports and race book. Yes, Sin City has been devastated by tough times, but the gambling economy, my friends, never dries up completely.

With a bank of 32 screens in front of me, I again am reminded that Sports Nation is controlled by two entities: television (lately ESPN) and gambling.

Where there is a will, there is a way. And where there is a line, there is a wager.

By late morning here, a half-dozen racetracks already are in action. By late afternoon, there will be a dozen baseball games from back East, plus golf and soccer filling the room.

It is Wall Street minus the inside trading. Trust me, Gordon Gekko would go bust within one year of betting the ponies. The house is the only one with an edge. You never see a sports book downsize, do you? (Sure, in one episode of ''Seinfeld,'' that bookie buddy of Kramer's didn't have money to pay Jerry for his winning Knicks bet. In real life, though, real bookies shop at Benetton and drive Cadillac Escalades.)

[tjwash]

1. Yes...I actually see them downsize and fold quite often.

Especially in Vegas...they have been hit worse by the rough economy than other places I travel to. Last time I was there I saw blocks of half finished construction projects because the banks had repossessed the land before the construction work was even finished.

Don't get suckered in by pro-banking propaganda articles bankrolled by those trying to distract us all away from who really caused this gigantic mess we as a nation are in right now to begin with.

[fishbulb703]

4. +1, I know I read somewhere informal march madness gambling was way down this year. nt

[Subdivisions]

2. I was in a convenience store yesterday and there was a lady I was

familiar with who works at a local fast-food joint right behind the store. She was in line in front of me and she asked the clerk for a pack of cigarettes. She already had a soda and I thing a candy bar and I watched as she looked at the total of her purchases added up on the register display. Seeing the subtotal, she shook her head and I could hear her express under her breath her displeasure at what these products were costing. She hands the cashier a $10 bill and receives a buck and some coins in change.

Then she did a curious thing for someone feeling the obvious strain of burning a $10 on cigarettes and junk food. She handed the 1$ she received in change for her purchase back to the clerk and said: "What the hell, gimme a lotto ticket. Maybe I'll get rich."

I can count on two hands the number of lotto tickets I've bought since the inception of the lottery in Texas. I bought those in very good personal financial times. I just had to shake my own head at this poor woman who indicates that she is struggling yet throws her money at a lottery.

[Urban Prairie]

3. Most peoples sum total of lottery winnings

probably never come close to the amount that they have already spent buying tickets in the first place.

I often wonder about scratch-off lottery games. I don't really know the answer to this, but I am guessing that the highest prize money advertised on those for each new game is printed on one ticket only, and unlike the big MM lottery numbers games, the winning ticket is never announced, and the game tickets continue to be sold even after the "grand prize" is won, until they are all gone. If so, the scratch-offs should be called rip-offs instead.