Pauma Will Pay

The land and online slots landscape has been very controversial to say the least. With people divided strongly between for and against legalizing both forms of gambling, it has been difficult for legislators to make everybody happy. Issues that keep coming up include the addictive properties of the behavior, how the presence of gambling can affect the community, and the proximity of casinos to social facilities like schools, churches and common centers. A great way (perhaps the only way) that legislators have been using to appease the naysayers has been to have the new casinos pay a certain amount of their revenue into community programs.

That is exactly the case for the new Pauma Tribe Casino in North Country, where opposition to them moving in has been strong. After months and months of negotiations and going back and forth, the community has finally given the tribe the green light for them to start building their slots casino. While not everybody might be thrilled about the news, it is more difficult to protest since the casino has been ordered to pay for such betterment programs like paving the highways, roads, and other visual projects. Furthermore, as it gains momentum and success, the casino will be required to siphon a percentage of its income into the community, by contributing to gambling addiction programs, youth assistance, and other social activities.

To be sure, these amounts will actually be quite a pretty penny. Yes, the slot machine resort they are planning on building is a $300 million project. On top of that, they will also be shelling out $400,000 for security, $40,000 for crime prevention, and a whopping $300,000 for slot machine and gaming dependency, to be exact.

Back to August 2008 Archive.