Published: March 3, 2013
Pat Howard: Whether through lottery or slots, government addicted to gambling
But there's a larger question. The Corbett administration's contract with Camelot Global Services -- now in limbo after new state Attorney General Kathleen Kane deemed it unconstitutional -- is premised on Camelot generating a lot more money from the lottery.
That means the state needs people to lose more to cover the coming increase in demand for the programs benefiting senior citizens that lottery proceeds pay for. While sitting in on the Erie Times-News Editorial Board's meeting with Corbett on Friday, I asked him if it was sound policy to fund a big increase in public spending by encouraging more people to gamble (lose) more cash in more ways more often.
Corbett parsed the issue, saying the idea was to get more people playing rather than coaxing those who already play to lose more. He also noted that the basic course he's on was set in 1971 when the state Legislature created the lottery.
There's no going back, in other words. Just asking the question felt kind of quaint.
Implicit in the governor's plan is another query: What's the alternative? Slashing subsidies to senior citizens as the wave of aging baby boomers swamps Harrisburg would be politically unthinkable, as would raising the sums required through conventional taxes.
So what's needed is a larger pool of suckers who will part with that cash voluntarily. The arrangement with Camelot would commit the company to delivering that in exchange for a piece of the action, which set records for sales and profit in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
While the moral dynamics are similar, the gambling calculus is different in Erie County, where local government's share of the take from Presque Isle Downs & Casino has begun to contract along with the casino's revenue in the face of new competition in Ohio. County government and its Gaming Revenue Authority had been splitting $12 million-plus each year, but it dropped to $11.7 million in 2012 largely because of the opening of Horseshoe Casino Cleveland in May.
When Harrisburg was putting in place casino legislation and as plans for the local slots emporium took shape before its 2007 opening, scattered voices locally raised concerns. Some worried about the effects of gambling's powerful lure on families and the region's social fabric, while others warned that slot machines would redirect people's finite disposable income from the local economy into the casino company's corporate coffers.
Such cautions never got much traction. The prospect of easy money became an unstoppable force.
Much was made of the prevalence of Ohio plates in Presque Isle Downs' parking lots, because whatever cash out-of-state gamblers left behind was a net plus for Erie County's economy. But the Cleveland casino has likely softened that market for good.
We'll get a read on the new normal by the end of the year when the numbers reflect a full year of the more competitive environment. The question isn't if, but by how much, Erie County's share of the take will drop.
What's striking, as that unfolds, is how thoroughly that money has been woven into the planning and finances of county government, not to mention the various civic facilities and institutions that receive annual grants. The casino pipeline didn't exist until six years ago, and now any major slowing in its flow would cause a world of hurt.
Demand for the money quickly expanded to meet the supply. Now it's helping to fuel, among other things, the extension of Erie International Airport's runway, the renovations to Erie Insurance Arena, and a new sprinkler system and water lines at Pleasant Ridge Manor-West.
There's no going back, in other words. So as Gov. Corbett looks for ways to increase the state's lottery take to meet greater need for the things it pays for, local government and nonprofit officials are rooting for Presque Isle Downs to limit its competitive losses so its money can keep covering everything that now depends on it.
Both situations reflect how gambling can be addictive in more ways than one. Government entities that develop the habit soon enough are dependent on a steady supply of people with a weakness for losing odds.
As Corbett suggested, whether it was a good idea in the first place is beside the point. In Erie County, like in Harrisburg, we're all in.
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