Letter: Gaming should be paying more

Tuesday, April 24, 2001 | 9:05 a.m.

Recently on the same day you printed that the MGM MIRAGE reported record earnings, you also reported that Clark County is thinking of having students pay for extra curricular activities.

Am I the only one who sees the disparity of the state's attention?

Annually the state Legislature scoffs at Sen. Joe Neal's ideas to make the casinos pay a fair share. An interesting sidelight: I spent my honeymoon here 42 years ago at the Thunderbird; the room rate was $9 and the room tax was 5 percent. In 42 years the room tax has only gone up 4 percent -- and still the casinos cry at the very thought of the state getting more revenue from this source. What a shame -- an average of 1 percent every 10 years.

How deep into their pockets do the casinos reach.

Wake up Nevada, Clark County and Las Vegas, you are being ripped off worse today then any mob ever could have imagined, and it's all legal according to your elected representatives!

JOHN J. HUELBIG