A Defense of McDowell

ArmaniJeanss

I'm not trolling here. Honest.
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Maybe McDowell has a point. I'm sure he has discussed this with BrianCowen in Finance and I daresay that if there were such a huge amount of jobs/benefit to the economy etc at stake here that he would not be going ahead with it.
I'd suspect that in Ireland the casinos are being ran in such a way that very little of the
money which goes through them is finding its way into tax revenues - I would also say that a lot of the 'jobs' involved are of the cash in hand variety (or at least of the 'pay them minimum wage and let tips from the customers make up the shortfall' variety). Frankly, these are not jobs/businesses
that the government will give a damn about losing. I reckon his ultimate plan is to re-open casinos under a new licensing system with proper legal controls.

There is currently a multitude of casinos opening - this is not just about the 2 or 3 well ran ones which we frequent - there are about 15 in Dublin City alone now. At least one of which is ran by an IsleOfMan exile suspected of planning irregularities who refuses to come back to this country to
testify at the planning tribunals. His family run it on his behalf and have been convicted in court of obstructing Gardai. These people and their ilk are using the 'members club loophole' to open these casinos, and at the moment nothing can be done about it. Who knows what other criminal element is
behind some of these casinos?

Maybe it would actually be for the best to shut every casino down, and then put proper legislation through the books, determining a proper licensing system, allowing Garda objections to dodgy individuls getting licenses,
proper accounting procedures, customer charters, gaming commission etc.
We might be without casinos for a year, but in the end we just might end up with a better product, which creates real jobs and makes a decent contribution to the economy.

Regards,
AJs.

Nalced_irl

Answer: Set up a state run Casino.
Thats what i think anyway. If they set up some super-casino they could make millions altho id like to see their rake ideas for it

Lafortezza

They need to get the legislation figured out first, then phase it in. And I don't know why he wants to shut down casinos when he could just make sure they are properly taxed.

Mr. Flibble

Is there a draft of the legislation available yet? I'd like to see what we're up against.


Are all our home game posts going to be shut down as quick as our cousin posts if this goes thru!?

5starpool

Of course not. He said he is specifically targetting games where the costomer is not getting a fair chance i.e. table games where the house has a guaranteed edge and cash games where the house takes an hourly charge. In his own words, 'Poker Classics won't be affected', presumably meaning that tournament only operators such as PE/GJP/VN should be ok.

jtsuited

why don't they do some sort of official review of what's going on right now. On most other areas a full report on the situation would be needed.
Right now, Mc Dowell just seems to be spouting off the same inaccuracies every month or so.
Is this is how government works?

Sinfonia

perhaps i missed it, but when i went through his website i found nothing on this topic at all!
it agree it would be very helpful to have an official review of the whole situation from McDowell himself, preferably without all of the political bullsh*t and sidestepping the issue - just to give us the whole story in layman's terms, so we can fully understand his actions and motivations.

ArmaniJeanss

SumGuy wrote:

perhaps i missed it, but when i went through his website i found nothing on this topic at all!
i agree it would be very helpful to give us the whole story in layman's terms, so we can fully understand his actions and motivations.

FWIW I sent the following mail to the PD's email address a few minutes ago.
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Dear Sir/Madam.

There has been some heated debate on the boards.ie poker forum about Minister McDowells ‘plans’ for casinos in Ireland.

Most of the members of this forum would frequent casinos in Ireland on a regular basis and consider them an acceptable use of their ‘leisure Euro’, playing poker, a game they love, amongst fellow likeminded individuals in a clean and safe environment. Others on this forum are employed by these casinos, and are worried what the future holds.

We would appreciate if someone from the PDs could come on this forum and explain the ministers plans in a clear concise manner. I can guarantee that any member of the party who responds will be treated in a civil manner,

Here is a link to the board.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=416

The threads in question are

‘Why is McDowell using a spade to close the casino’s’ and ‘In defense of McDowell’.

A ProgDemocrat response on either of these threads would be welcome.

Regards,

Dub13

Nice email.

I would have added something along the lines that Boards has 70,000 odd members,as all political party's like to get some cheap PR.

Sinfonia

nice email armani, very well handled:)

Scouser in Dub

Am not convinced by the ban now licence later argument personally, it seems irresponsible to cost jobs and run infrastructure into the ground only to subsequently licence it later surely it would make more sense to invite the clubs to licence