Murphy North Carolina

[FloridaPhil]

Tomorrow morning we will we leaving for a week long stay in North Carolina. We go there each year in October for the fall foliage and to kick off the cooler weather. Previously, we would spend a few nights at the casino in Cherokee. Recently, a new casino was built in Murphy NC, about an hour from our house. The Murphy casino is an interesting venture. It's right on the Georgia NC border. This puts it closer to the lucrative Atlanta market. It gives me a chuckle when I think about all that money flowing out of Georgia because Georgians think casino gambling is the worst thing that could happen to them. North Carolina's gain, Georgia's loss.

Like Cherokee, Murphy is starting out in a metal building. It's not much to look at right now. They built a hotel next to the casino and they have room to expand. The area is in the foothills and not especially pretty. I expect this casino will eventually become as big or bigger than Cherokee.

The casino games are mostly slots. They do have video poker. The odds are on pare with what you commonly see in the Southeast, 97% quarter games and 99% dollar games. The big attraction is the closeness for Georgia players. Bus loads of people from Atlanta visit this casino each day. They have a food court that's OK, but not great. A nicer restaurant is planned.

If you are in the area, stop by Murphy and check it out. Don't make a special trip. Cherokee is much nicer and the scenery is better. We especially like the trout stream that runs through the casino. That's cool. The only bad thing about Cherokee in my opinion are the restaurant options. My wife and friends like Brio, I don't. I'm more of a comfort food guy than a sauce on pasta guy.

I don't know if Georgia and Texas will ever have casino gambling. They are missing a huge income source. If they ever have casinos in Atlanta, Murphy will be a ghost town. If Texas had casino gambling, they could pay for the border wall out of their restaurant receipts.

[Eduardo]

That sounds beautiful and a great week.

Best of luck in the casino. Hope you snag a royal and prove those 97% machines wrong!

[FloridaPhil]

Best of luck in the casino. Hope you snag a royal and prove those 97% machines wrong!

Eduardo, I quit agonizing over video poker game odds. All it does is give me a negative outlook and cause me to do crazy things. I honestly wish I never knew anything about them. Before I found out the games I played were "bad", I did just fine. Thanks for the encouragement.

[FloridaPhil]

Here's a follow up on casino politics. Right now, casinos in Florida are limited to tribal casinos and a few racinos that were thrown a bone when the tribes were given a monopoly. There are big investors who want to build a mega casino resort in Miami. Disney is against this as they are afraid they will lose convention business. The tribes don't want the competition. Players would like more competition and a few new casinos in places where there aren't any. Miami needs more tourism business.

This is being addressed by Amendment #3 in the upcoming election. As usual, the powerful were able to word Amendment #3 so know one knows what they are voting for. Years back the Florida constitution allowed for a voter initiated change to the constitution. All it took was a simple majority. This allowed the public to get around politicians were were being paid to keep things off the ballot. After one particular vote, the politicians were able to change the law from a simple majority to 60%. You can't get 60% of Florida voters to agree on anything, so this effectively killed the provision.

A Yes vote on Amendment #3 would effectively kill any expansion of gambling in Florida allowing the tribes to keep their monopoly and assure Disney remains the only convention spot in the State.

If you want more casinos, you should note No on Amendment #3. If you want things to stay the same, vote Yes. Personally, I don't care as long as they don't put too many casinos in Florida. This is what happened in the Northeast and it's bad for the industry as a whole.

[billryan]

You have a chance to bring good games close to your house and giving millions of your fellow retirees better options, and you worry that too many casinos are bad for the industry?

[FloridaPhil]

You have a chance to bring good games close to your house and giving millions of your fellow retirees better options, and you worry that too many casinos are bad for the industry?

Do you believe more casinos means better odds? Tell that to players in Biloxi. They had a casino with great VP odds, Margaritaville, and the rest of the casinos shut it down with political wrangling. You are naive if you don't think casinos get together to fix a mutual problem that affects their bottom line.

Too many casinos creates places like Atlantic City where the only people who play there any more are locals. Everyone else plays at the newer casinos like the Mohegan Sun. Soon there will be another choice in the area, then another, then another, until they are forced to turn all the old casinos into low income housing. Florida has enough empty shopping malls and old buildings. We don't need anymore.

[Tedlark]

Phil then your wife could move to commercial real estate and REALLY clean up.....

Kidding, kidding.

Good luck to you and your wife on the trip.

[FloridaPhil]

Phil then your wife could move to commercial real estate and REALLY clean up.....

We have sold some commercial real estate in the past. Big commissions, long time between checks. My wife specializes in Florida lakefront homes, lots and investment property. She has a team of Realtors who work for her. She works when she wants to. I am retired now, but I still do some consulting on occasion.

Florida attracts a lot of retirees. They come here for the weather, no State income tax and low property taxes compared to the North East. We both have lived in Florida most of our lives. My wife was born in Miami. Where we live in Central Florida, the cost of living is much lower than in the big cities. I hate waiting an hour for a seat in a restaurant, so we like it.

Casinos in Florida are just something else to do. We don't have many serious gamblers. I would like to see another casino open in Central Florida. Tampa is all we have right now. I have heard rumors about putting one in Daytona. I think that would be a perfect place. Right now the northeast Florida gamblers only have an offshore gambling boat. Can you imagine playing VP on a rocking boat out in the ocean? Yuck!

[advantage playe]

I went out on one of those boats in florida to play live poker over 10 yrs ago.i am still recovering from sea sickness but I won 45 dollars!!

[case]

We went to the Murphy casino a few months after it opened. We came from the north down I-75 and cut cross country to reach the casino. We have never seen so many churches on the drive after we left the expressway as we saw in such a confined area. Lots of run down houses but most of the churches were in good shape. Wonder where they get enough support from the sparse communities.

The casino was small and you are right the VP was bad. Again you are right about the food. It was a disappointment. We had free rooms as they are associated with Caesars and the hotel was nice. We made the trip as we were heading for Florida for the winter.