Economics 101: Where is Las Vegas Going?

It's no secret that many states are facing bancruptcy. A November 2009 Pew Center Report states that Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and California (with its IOUs to pay bills), are barreling toward economic disaster.

Why do some states suffer more than others? According to the Pew Report, states that tend to rely heavily on one type of industry (tourism for instance) have a history of persistent budget shortfalls and other internal problems which make it difficult to implement major changes such as tax increases.

So where is this line of reasoning going? Well, California has long been considering legalizing gambling (aside from Indian casinos), in order to tap into the multi-billion dollar revenues the state could collect, ostensibly targeting the money for education and debt reduction. Read here for Californians responses to this issue: http://forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=62261.

It's no secret that a large portion of Las Vegas's gambling revenue comes from California. But what if California legalizes gambling? There goes a reliable source of income.

In response to the headline: Las Vegas gambling plummets--What does it mean for the city?, posted on the blog site, http://www.skyscraperpage.com/, readers comment re the impact of other states legalizing gambling across the board: ttp://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=154162.

This next year should be telling. I'd like your take on the issue: Where is Las Vegas going?

All reasonable comments will be published below.

Mobwriter