The areas around our Casino Boats (Harrahs in Maryland Heights & Ameristar in St. Charles) have done quite well for our communities.  Since their arrival we have built a Amphitheater in Maryland Hts for outside concerts and Hotels. In St. Charels we have built a huge Convention Center which are wonderful for tourists.  The school districts are booming and winning top awards.  There are plans now to create a quite large marina on the river.  Our real estate has done wonderful - older homes are getting make overs and new ones are popping up where ever someone finds room! I have yet to see the draw backs of it other than the occasional sad story where someone took gambling to far personally.  And yes, they have created a lot of jobs too!  Feel free to contact me if you should have any more questions - If I can I would love to answer them for you.

I live in the neighborhood where the Seminoles built their Hard Rock Casino/Hotel in Hollywood, FL.  It's huge and it brings excitement to our city.  You can go there and not need to go anywhere else.  We also have some other venues nearby like horse tracks that are now getting into the casino biz.  I think it's a boost.  We've seen the value of our homes go up steadily even with the so-called "burst" of the real estate bubble.  Yes there's a lot of homes on the market but I've also noticed a lot of moving trucks unloading.  And the homes that are listed in the area all boast that they're near the casino/hotel. These places bring hundreds of jobs to the community and it's a boost of the local economy making the homes in the area quite desirable.