Like gamblers who return to casinos despite their losses, casino operators will keep going back to states without casinos until they win.
That’s the pattern that lies just beyond the surprising defeat of an effort to add three non-tribal casinos in North Carolina. Senate leader Phil Berger put his full weight behind a proposal to include casino expansion in the state budget, but he was blocked by an unlikely coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans.
Berger said he won’t bring up casino expansion again this session, but that’s likely a pause until the push is renewed next year.
Joseph Weinert, executive vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a firm that advises the casino gambling industry, told me, “Once a gaming debate begins, it does not end until there is success for the gaming industry.”
