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For years now, there have been campaigns all over the United States pleading for the expansion of commercial gambling, but it seems that 2006 will be completely different, and the urge for gambling will be put to a halt. Andrew Zarnett, analyst of the Deutsche Bank, stated that the chances for an increase of the spreading of casinos in the US would be almost non-existent this year. According to Zarnett, there's very little need for gambling expansion, except for in Pennsylvania, where slot machines are planned at the horse tracks. Casino enemy, Tom Grew, Executive Director of the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling, believes that no statewide referendums to expand gambling will come up in 2006 or in the next two years. In an election year with so many campaign-financing scandals, there is little chance that anything will happen. A decade ago, many states were trying to increase gambling venues for the gaming revenues. In 2000 and 2002, a large part of the states had serious proposals to legalize casinos, slot machines and race tracks, although most of them were never accepted. Only three years ago, many states were trying to get gambling legalized or wanted to liberalize existing regulations and three states were considering collecting gaming taxes. The non-existing urge for gambling expansion, is very unfortunate for Nevada-based operators and slot machine manufacturers, who need this expansion to boost their revenues. Last year, only eight states had reasonable prospects for expanding gaming. A Las Vegas professor of the University of Nevada specialized in gaming studies, Bill Thompson, stated that the issue of legalizing gambling does no longer exist. There are plenty of gambling venues all over the country and the US has enough casinos all over the country. Thomson adds that there is a larger urge to increase the number of tribal casinos, than an urge to increase the number of areas where commercial casinos are permitted. Thompson believes that the gambling industry is quite content with the spreading of gambling and now they just want more facilities in jurisdictions where gambling is already legal. A partner in Las Vegas-based financial consultants Applied Analysis said that nowadays, political pressure outweighs the fiscal benefits a state gets for legalizing gambling venues. Voters aren't so much in favor with legalizing gambling, as they were in the past and in the last couple of years and anti-gambling campaigns gotten more support over the last years. State governments are less hungry for legalization since state budgets have increased and they are no longer in need of tax revenues of casinos. Now, Grey's group and other anti-gambling organizations are re-starting their attack on gambling with radio and television advertisements, hoping to build public sentiment against the gaming industry.
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