Letter: Anti-casino view is out of line

Unfortunately some residents see him as an underdog championing the fight against the wealthy and wicked casino owners. Yet it is because of the money flowing to the public treasuries from casino gaming taxes, room taxes from their hotels, sales taxes from their retail shops and the employment they create that enables the residents to enjoy a higher standard of living and an enviable life-style second to none.

It is hard to imagine how people can consider themselves underdogs when they drive their cars on toll-free roads past magnificent libraries, parks, playgrounds, senior citizen centers and other ever-expanding public facilities with extra money in their wallets, which in other states would have been spent on city and state income taxes.

Obviously casinos are not built and operated for altruistic purposes, but were it not for visionaries such as Steve Wynn, Las Vegas would be little more than the barren desert that surrounds it. Or worse still, it would be like some of the financially distressed crime-ridden cities which many people fled to come here.

FRANK CHELLI

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