As of today, residents of Gilroy won’t be able to have a taste of blackjack as the City Council rejects its earlier appeal to allow the city’s only casino, the Garlic City Club, to host blackjack games, which happened on the 6th of July 2009. The club is located on the angle of Monterey and Seventh streets and is the only casino located in the city of Gilroy. The Garlic City Club has passed on their appeal to hold the No Bust 21st Century Blackjack, and have almost won the Council’s vote with 6-0, until they unveiled the shocking truth and discovered that they could have dishonored a 15 year old city law that forbids these so-called gambling games. Since the nature and game play of No Bust 21st Century Blackjack allows players to act as banker in the game at every rotation, it is classified under that category. Upon realizing this, Councilperson Dion Bracco called to reinstate this particular subject in front of the council, saying that the matter must be brought back to the Council because of the misunderstanding.
This type of Blackjack entails that every player to operate as the banker in the game on a revolving basis. Prior to each hand, one of the players is required to put down a certain quantity of funds in order to cover the round’s actions. After doing so, he then plays through the dealer’s hand. This is in contrast to ordinary poker games where players can only gamble against one another or maintain their own hands.
On a lighter note, the Downstream Casino Resort in Joplin was seen to have made an impact of $107 million since its first year on the area economy. The casino resort opened for business last year on the 22nd of November and has been the economic stimulus of the city, as stated by Downstream Casino spokesman Sean Harrison. He reported that the $107 million impact was composed of payments to area vendors worth $77.5 million as well as payroll and benefits that have totaled up to $29 million.
Likewise, the state of Oklahoma also received revenues from other casinos such as the Quapaw Casino, totaling up to $4.5 million in revenue during the recently ended fiscal year, according to the Office of State Finance.
Interestingly enough, the Downstream Casino started with only 1,250 employees and has since then never had problems or considerations of layoffs since the business has been good. One of the employees that was featured in local newspapers and magazines was music teacher/card dealer Fran Wallain, who said, “I don’t want a sad job. I don’t want a hard job. I want a fun job.” She had been employed in Downstream since the first day after being called for an invitation to go into dealer school, and has since then been going to classes while teaching music lessons at Carthage Junior High School in Joplin. Eventually she retired after 23 years working as a music teacher and continued on her second career as a card dealer at Downstream. She also comments on how her current position paid well and that it was the “fun job” she was looking for.