• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Home 20723
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • More
    • Opinion
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

First They Came For Dotty’s

First They Came For Dotty’s
Chuck Muth
September 21, 2011

(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – Big Gaming won its battle to destroy competition at the Nevada Gaming Commission last month. While Dotty’s and similar businesses now have a choice –spend a hundred grand plus to remodel each location or shut them down – the impact of the decision could spread far beyond these few companies.

What happens next? What happens if Dotty’s decides the fight isn’t worth it or the costs to comply aren’t affordable? What happens when the customers of Dotty’s don’t go to the big casinos to gamble? Who’s going to be next on Big Gaming’s hit list?

There is a reason these people choose to go to Dotty’s. They don’t want to sit in a dark, noisy casino with no windows and scantily-clad waitresses scampering about.

If the worst comes to pass and Dotty’s and the other taverns like them are forced to shut down at least some of their locations, it is unlikely their former customers will go to the big casinos. The casinos simply don’t offer what they want. That is why the Dotty’s model has been so successful in the first place.

So what will they do? Where will they go? More than likely they’ll end up in convenience stores and grocery stores.

If that happens, could convenience stores be the next target? At least some are concerned about it.

Gaming constitutes a significant portion of the revenue of convenience stores, even though they are limited by law to seven machines per location. Of the owners we were able to talk to the numbers ranged as high as 50% of the store’s revenue.

Changing the regulations to prohibit gaming in convenience stores, from a technical standpoint, would be much easier than what was required to regulate the Dotty’s model out of business. Instead of the convoluted language describing sizes and lengths and hours of operation and restaurants and amenities, merely striking a handful of words would eliminate gaming from convenience stores.

Most convenience store owners are franchisees, small businesspeople who operate one or two stores and take a hands-on approach to running them – working 6 or 7 days a week. Many of them don’t have the luxury of taking the time away to deal with politics but that doesn’t mean they’re not worried.

Kevin Clauretie, who owns a 7-11 in northwest Las Vegas with four slot machines, said he’s concerned about convenience stores potentially being a target. He stated he’s always worried about government intruding in business.

One industry group reportedly hired a lobbyist to help protect the interests of its members against a potential attack by Big Gaming. Some convenience store owners believe their corporate franchisors would help them if they became a target.

The Big Gamers and their allies claim they’re not going to come after anyone else. At least one of the businesses involved on their side sent a representative to soothe the fears of a group of convenience store owners.

But just because you’re safe today doesn’t mean you will be tomorrow. Big Gaming has shown itself to be absolutely ruthless when it comes to protecting its interests and is prone to changing its mind as its circumstances change. Dotty’s operated for more than 15 years before they became a target.

Convenience store owners and other operators of gaming machines need to be prepared.

First they came for Dotty’s,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t Dotty’s.
Then they came for the convenience stores,
and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t own a convenience store.
Then they came for the grocery stores,
and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t own a grocery store.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Director for Nevada Business Coalition.)

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Opinion
September 21, 2011
Chuck Muth

Related Items

More in Opinion

Governors ask Biden for ‘honest, accurate’ information on illegal immigration

The Center SquareOctober 4, 2023
Read More

Amodei Statement on Debt Ceiling Bill

Chuck MuthJune 1, 2023
Read More

Tark: Trans “Rights” … and Wrongs

Chuck MuthMay 26, 2023
Read More

Stone: The Truth About AB 250: Will Patients Really Benefit?

NN&V StaffMay 26, 2023
Read More

“Ungrateful Miscreants”: Miller, Segerblom Insult Local Small Business Owners

NN&V StaffMay 24, 2023
Read More

Quarter-Million Dollar Ad Campaign Targets Nevada Legislators for Trapping Hispanic Families in Unsafe Schools

NN&V StaffMay 22, 2023
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Muths truth

Copyright © 2023 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

A Fly On The Wall
It’s Important to Flush Out Yucca Mountain’s Potential