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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Cannonfest

I am officially in, going to Cannonfest this Sunday. Should be fun to talk to other hockey-starved fanatics like me! Oh, there are wings and beer too. What else can you ask for?

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Columbus Casino

Since it is a slow sports month, figured I would chime in on the casino coming to Columbus. I am still not sure how I feel about this.

I voted for the casino on the first vote. I do think it will bring some money and jobs into the economy. Could there be downsides? Sure, but at the end of the day, people who are going to blow their paycheck gambling will find a way to do it. I know people who would blow hundreds of dollars a week betting on college and professional football, way before any legalized gambling ever made its way here. At the end of the day, I think it is a positive for the city.

However, they never should have moved it out of the arena district. That area has become a destination, and the casino would have added to that. Who the hell wants to go to the west side? I understand the reasoning, trying to use the Penn National development to spur other business in the area. I just don't see it doing that. Pardon the expression, but that area is a shithole, a mere shell of what it once was. Hope they hire lots of security and put lots of cameras out there, they are going to need them.

Penn has been playing dirty with the fight over annexation and trying to extract money out of the city. They ended up getting some money from the city, and in the long run it is worth it to the city to pay out a little bit for a huge potential payout. My only hope is they use some of the casino tax dollars to figure out a solution for the CBJ and the arena lease.

I hope they really make the casino high class, and keep the riff raff down to a minimum. Because if they don't invest and keep their end of the bargain, we have no recourse. It is a constitutional amendment, so it is not like Penn National can be pushed out easily. Let's all hope for the sake of our city they do it right the first time.