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I wish I could report that I had been to the new casino, but it's been a very busy week-and-a-half, and I haven't made it over there yet.
 

A whopping $27.3 million might have been spent on the slots and gaming tables during Rivers Casino & Resort's first week of operation, but none of it came from me.
 

Which is a testament to the excitement and enthusiasm a new gaming facility can bring to an area. People want to check out the casino and see what it has to offer - not all people, but a lot of people. This shouldn't come as a surprise. The casino is new, and new things are exciting.
 

The real question is whether this activity and interest is sustainable.

Will gamblers continue to flock to the casino through the year? Or will revenue and visitors slip once the novelty of the casino wears off?
 

We do know that net winnings at Saratoga Casino Hotel dropped 25 percent during Rivers Casino & Resort's opening week.
 

Just a coincidence?
 

Probably not.
 

There's a reason Tom Wiedmayer, general manager at Saratoga Casino Hotel, told The Gazette he views Rivers Casino as "direct competition."
 

Rivers' strong opening week revenue and attendance numbers are good news for Schenectady, but it would be unfortunate if Rivers' long-term success came at the expense of an already-successful casino in Saratoga Springs.
 

Of course, we already knew that the new upstate casinos - there will eventually be four of them - had the potential to take business away from other gaming facilities in New York and the Northeast.
 

 

How these trends play out locally remains to be seen, of course.

 

Also worth monitoring is the casino's impact on crime and public safety.
 

I'll be honest: I've always regarded some of these concerns as overblown. I never thought the new casino would be a magnet for criminals and ne'er-do-wells. But the casino-related crime stories of the past week caught my attention, and I'm open to the possibility that perhaps I was too quick to dismiss these concerns.
 

I mean, you couldn't ask for a more salacious opening week casino story than the report that three people were arrested when a fight broke out over an argument about group sex. Casinos have always had a reputation for unseemly behavior, and this story suggests there's a reason for that.
 

Also troubling was the arrest of a 20-year-old who used a fake ID to get on the gaming floor. You must be 21 to gamble, and there are apparently already people trying to figure out how to get around this rule.