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Raising the Ante A hard look at Casino Gamblng by Andre Burnett
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The moral or ethical implications of opening the island to casinos are moot when considering the fact that gambling in its simplest forms exists on every street corner of Jamaica.
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ccording to the Jamaican Clergy, casino gambling is the harbinger of the complete decay in the moral fabric of the Jamaican people while those in charge of our country would beg to differ, touting the potential economic benefits of having facilities where individuals willingly part with their hard earned cash. The moral or ethical implications of opening the island to casinos are moot when considering the fact that gambling in its simplest forms exists on every street corner of Jamaica. The average individual may not readily walk into a gaming lounge but you would be hard pressed to find someone who has not tried their hand at hitting the lottery company where it hurts. So, is the controversy about casino gambling merely the ramblings of institutions struggling to find relevance in an increasingly squalid society? It may be so but then again, it may not. A practical look at the concept of a casino might yield some perspective. With expensive machines and security systems, staff costs, energy costs, and a host of other expenses you might come to the realization that casinos are definitely not cheap. That means they are definitely in the business of overcoming those overheads and making a healthy profit on top of that, and that has to come out of their patrons’ pockets. But that’s just business right? After all they aren’t forcing anyone to hand over their cash, but then again “force” might be a strong word.
lures of gambling, whether it is the rush of risk and reward, a break from monotony, or simply just the imbalance of adrenaline and serotonin in our bloodstream. Therefore there is just that niggling morality issue about a business that runs with human weakness as its fuel. But the bottom line is (emphasizing the bottom line) is that casinos represent hard cold cash, and unless the church can match the potential income represented by casinos then their argument has failed before it starts. Pragmatism or immorality, it makes no sense for us to decide, it has already been decided for us.
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The thing is this, everything about a casino, right down to the ugly carpets, heavy lighting and lack of clocks is a direct attempt to use psychology to get into the minds and pockets of gamblers and potential gamblers. While rumours of casinos in the US pumping extra oxygen into their gaming rooms via air conditioning to increase activity are unsubstantiated, it gives an idea of the amount of thought that goes into attempting to make individuals part ways with their cash. The human brain seems to be almost extra-susceptible to the yourmoney ezine
Mind Your business
2014 Interactive Marketing
Budget Forecast
C
hange is here—the ways in which your audience view and process information from standard media sources has changed. Technology has empowered the consumer to access information as they read and surf across offline and online media. My children (I am guilty of it as well) are engaged in watching TV, chatting with friends on Facebook and surfing the internet to research a movie/ song/gadget/concert all at the same time. Small, medium and big companies are paying attention to the digital culture. Forrester Research provides a peek at the interactive marketing budget of US companies. The interactive marketing spending as a percentage of all advertising spending will grow from 13% in 2010 to 21% in 2014. The two top choices for interactive marketing investing are search marketing and display advertising. See chart below.
$ millions
2010
2012
2014
Mobile Marketing
$561
$950
$1,274
Social Media
$935
$1,649
$3,113
E-mail Marketing
$1,355
$1,676
$2,081
Display Advertising
$8,395
$11,732
$16,900
Search Marketing
$17,765
$24,299
$31,588
Total
$29,012
$40,306
$54,956
13%
17%
21%
% of all advertising spending
What are your plans for the future? Source: American Marketing Association, Forrester Research’s US interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014; Cambridge, Mass. Based in New York, Gail’s Graphic Designs offers a broad spectrum of creative design and communication solutions to assist in the marketing of your small business. Contact Gail Lewis at glewis@gailsdtp.com or visit Gail’s Graphic Designs at www.gailsdtp.com.
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Life is simple... but Not Easy Emmanuel Hall CEO – eBusiness Synergy Inc. www.ebsynergyinc.com
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read the Forbes article on the world’s billionaires surprisingly the rich actually got richer, even in the tough GLOBAL economic times, which essentially means one thing…the poor got poorer. Why? Simple, in tough times, the rich do more with their money and the poor do less. Granted, the rich have more at their disposal but the financial philosophy hold true; what you do with your money determines what you get. Do LESS, get LESS... Do MORE, get MORE… For the poor however, the answer is never that easy...simple but not easy. In tough times we are warned that we should find ways to cut back, so our minds are warped into the belief that the only ways to survive is to cut back on this and cut back on that. Frankly speaking some of the things we are asked to cut should not have been on our spending list in the first place.
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The rich got richer evidently by doing more with what they have not necessarily because of how much they’ve got.
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Nonetheless, we get our mind consumed with this notion of cutting back, which automatically means we are not seeking a progressive means of survival. Progressive means allowing our mind to think creatively for the generation of ideas. While we don’t have the millions like the wealthy to do more, we do have the power of the mind thus we can THINK more. Therefore we should act accordingly, don’t become mired in the thinking phase, quickly put a plan of action in place.
find money to pay a number of bills and this money can only get you 2-3 days worth of food. What would you do? The fact is we are faced with challenges like these daily. The choices we make as a result will either keep us in this perpetual state of not having enough or get us out. The choices we make determine our circumstances. What I have done with my J$1000.00 has propelled me out of that situation SIMPLY because of the choices, risk and sacrifices made. I am not going to make this about me…but I am going to make this about what people really need to be doing in these circumstances. It is simple (not easy): SACRIFICE MORE, RISK MORE, THINK MORE and most importantly DO MORE. The rich got richer evidently by doing more with what they have not necessarily because of how much they’ve got. We should be thinking about doing more with what we’ve got, and not necessarily be looking down on how little we have. Can you imagine how simple life gets when we look at it from this standpoint? Simple yes…but it is not easy. advertisment
In the stead of having vast amounts of wealth available to us, we will have to compensate in that we will have to sacrifice more. History has shown that the greatest rewards involve people who go against conventional wisdom, people who take on challenges that others in their “right mind” would shy away from. Columbus himself went against “conventional wisdom”, stuck to his course and rediscovered the western world. Consider this…you have J$1000.00 in your name, nothing else and no one else to get anything from (since you owe everyone you had previously asked for help). You need to yourmoney ezine
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