This much is old: The electronic gaming industry will continue to mutate so as to survive each successive attempt to make it illegal.
This much is new: Jackson County’s planning director Gerald Green said of the video gambling parlors on Highway 441, “They’re like a zombie that cannot be killed.”
This much is old: People attended a public hearing hosted by the NC Utilities Commission to protest rake hikes requested by Duke Power.
This much is new: The Green Grannies sang to protest the rate hikes.
This much is old: Markets for entertainment and vice tend to run countercyclical. Pushes for expanded gambling and boozing have steadily appeared in headlines in WNC during the “recovery.”
This much is new:
The tribe added the sale of alcohol in the casino in 2009, in hopes of luring more business and resulting in larger checks to enrolled members. The recession hit at the same time, however, and took its toll on casino profits across the nation. The timing makes it difficult to measure what kind of bump alcohol sales would resulted in had it not been for the overall economic decline.
