"Gambling is a tax on ignorance"

Resist temptation of floating casino

The argument for casino gambling settles quickly and entirely on money. States and localities reap a few quick bucks in the form of direct tax receipts. Investors make a mint.

The lure of easy money, especially in hard times, now has the Norfolk City Council asking lawmakers in Richmond to OK riverboat gambling. Given that local officials seem incapable of resisting the temptation, the General Assembly will have to do so for them.

Advocates, led by City Councilman Paul Riddick, have promised to put the receipts from gambling in a transportation lockbox. It's a gimmick designed to sway lawmakers desperate for a few bucks to put into roads. But like the bright lights of a slot machine, the deal Norfolk is pursuing is ultimately a bad one for everyone but the game's operators.

Gamblers always lose, of course. No player ever beats the house for long, a fact that explains why gambling is such a profitable enterprise. People who believe they can beat the house are regularly proven wrong.

But it's not just gamblers who are affected by the arrival of the industry. Others lose, too. Studies have shown that existing businesses for go sales when money is diverted into casino slot machines. Restaurants struggle. Crime accompanies gambling, as sure as anything. Bankruptcies rise.

What city officials are proposing certainly sounds exotic enough. It's intended to. "Riverboat gambling" even seems somehow historical, inspiring visions of paddlewheel boats and Kenny Rogers. What the industry actually offers, romantic costume aside, is a casino on the water.

In some ways that fact even compounds the problems presented by a casino. For every person who enjoys gambling on the Elizabeth River or Chesapeake Bay, there will be one who will play more than he can afford because he cannot escape the temptation until the boat docks again.

Advocates for floating gaming argue that opening a casino on the water will keep people from spending their money in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, another argument that simply fails on its face. Proximity matters enormously, especially in matters guided by human impulses.

More importantly, with gambling removed from Hampton Roads - at least for now - so are the industry's problems and effects. And the appalling victimization on which it is built.

"Gambling is a tax on ignorance," Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, once famously said. "I find it socially revolting when the government preys on the ignorance of its citizenry. When the government makes it easy for people to take their Social Security checks and pull [slot machine] handles, it relieves taxes on those who don't fall for it. It's not government at its best."

Buffett, one of Earth's richest men, knows something about money. Local leaders - and the ones in Richmond - ought to listen to him.