90 minutes from Salt Lake City and across the state line in Nevada is a little casino town called West Wendover that fewer than 5,000 Nevadans call home.
The place is packed on weekends, as Utahans dump their quarters into slots, and bet their dollars at the craps tables.
Since UTAH has this reality, it would seem that HAWAII is the only state without convenient access to legal gaming. You have to spend $800 for air/room for a jaunt to Las Vegas--and that's the cheapest option.
It is time for Hawaii to give in. The social ills of gambling are here, and have been for decades. The underworld has 100% control of it. Keeping gambling illegal is just protecting their interests for them.
Everyone has enthusiastically jumped on the pot-smoking-for-fun bandwagon, yet legislators still balk at gambling.
SMH.