Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

Development of the Gaming Industry
143
so on; we don’t have a permanent population
to support it. Racing has been tried in Las
Vegas, has been tried in Reno, and dog racing
has never been tried here, but I don’t think
that would go either because you just do
not have the population to support it. And,
number two, it would take away—if you took
the weekend influx of people that comes
in here and they all go out to a track, then
what’s going to happen with your gaming
establishments. So actually we don’t want
it. And it would just be a weekend function
anyway. So it really wouldn’t be that lucrative.
Would it be, do you think, actively opposed by
say the industry association, if someone tried
to put it in?
Well, I can’t answer for them, but I would
oppose it because I have enough taxes and
enough problems, payroll and this and that
and the other thing now, without having
somebody come along and add more to it.
And plus the fact that—you see, you have the
racetracks and dog racing—are just like the
federal government. The smaller person is the
one that picks up most of the tab, and all the
people—all the little people that pay taxes is
really what keeps the government going. It’s
not the one or two or three big ones. And with
horse racing and this and that and the other
thing, why you have all these small two-dollar
bettors, five-dollar bettors, and it takes a big
influx of population to be able to support a
racetrack because they don’t have that many
fifty-, hundred-dollar bettors or a thousanddollar
bettors. And all these little people go in
and bet their little two dollars or five dollars,
whatever they can afford, and they’re dyed-inthe-wool.
You go down to some of the tracks
in Los Angeles or in California or back East,
you’ll find all these little people, holes in their
shoes, holes in their stockings; and you know
when they talk about gaming in the state of
Nevada as opposed to what they deal to at a
racetrack, why they ought to be ashamed of
themselves, because we can hold our heads
up in saying that the people that come and
play in our establishments can afford it. But
when you get these big tracks, and you want
to watch these people sitting on newspapers
out on the pavement on the cement out there,
and avid—oh, avid horseplayers, of course.
But again, psychologically if they don’t play
the horses, they’re going to play the numbers
racket or they’re going to play something.
They have to gamble; these people just have
to gamble. So, I have mixed emotions about
it, but again like I say, around here, we just
wouldn’t have the population. Even Las Vegas
with its big influx of population, right now its
static population couldn’t support a track. You
see the racetrack has to go for a meet, what
they call a meet, every day of that they’re open
or whatever it is, and they have to take in so
much money every day to be able to meet
their payrolls and so on and so forth. So, I
don’t think it would be lucrative for them or
for the community. Next question.
Would you like to see gambling develop in any
other states?
Well, when you say would I like to see it
develop, everybody is greedy—no, I wouldn’t
like to see it develop anyplace else. But we
talked about before, if they put it in states like—
well, like New Jersey now, these manufacturing
states, big manufacturing centers, it’s going
to become a problem with them, I think, in
time because it’s not a resort area, as it were.
Of course, Atlantic City used to be a big resort
area and now it no longer is; they’re trying to
build it back up. But if you take these big resort
areas, and gaming per se is just like alcoholism;
a person can become addicted to it. They lose