It seems that there are many feeling disappointment right now. And for far disparate reasons. While I can’t seem to have any favored team reach the finals for the World Cup, thankfully only losing a few dollars in friendly bets, there are no bets in Atlantic City.
Yes Italy vs. France is set for Sunday. It should be quite the match. I will admit that Zidane has stepped up and brought his team with him. Italy is feeling a surge of pride and confidence. I’m sure you can guess who I think will win, but since my recent declarations have all failed I won’t jinx my team. They may not be my top pick, but a solid team and I think favored to win.
This has been a surprising World Cup. Favorites have dropped away and effort by new countries have been inspiring. Many teams have failed to live up to hype, and the FIFA rankings are proven to be the least useful tool in some time. Several referees will hopefully never appear in international games again. And I think most every fan of any nation has at least 1 call they find controversial. For the USA and its fans, I think there were at least 4 or 5 that were critical and absurd calls. Perhaps FIFA will learn from this and make improvements. Like allowing 1 substitute for overtime, or letting the referees speak to player before throwing out cards. Simple thinks but they are needed I think.
The answer for Atlantic City is trickier though. If you are unaware, especially if you are planning to make a trip to gamble, all the casinos are currently shutdown. It’s not some new law or the casinos giving a break to gamblers. Because of the inability of New Jersey’s state government to balance the budget, the casinos must be closed. A solution to raise the average taxes paid annually by $275 per person failed to be passed and now costs the state $1.3 million a day. Not including loss of casino workers pay, business losses, visitors to the city and state, transportation and more.
The big thing is of course the gambling. During the summer season. It pisses me off, I wanted to take a trip out there. The city itself can be fun, I know a few nice bars there. [I lived in Atlantic City for a while back in my 20's] Food is cheap, mostly and a lot of the people are nice. But 2 blocks of the strip and you immediately realize that the city is dead poor. With out the casinos there is nothing. I would not be surprised if right now there is a mass depression in the city.
As bets go, this is a bad one. No one is happy, except perhaps Las Vegas. That is another great city, lots of fun. They even had a craps table for .25 cents, and prime rib steak for about $5. If you read this in NJ, do me and the people in A.C. a favor. Get in touch with the legislature and have them act. Open the casinos. If you do you can try and take my don’t 10 bet.
I went a bit off topic, but nothing much is going on and why not.
This is what I think, what do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment