[Any State]'s addiction to gambling - our state needs an intervention

Replace the name of any state because they all believe the myths and propaganda of Predatory Gambling.....just a few more will save the budget, just a few more will save public education, table games will save horse racing.....and on and on and on, ignoring the costs, ignoring failed economic policy.

Note how all of the flawed arguments are identical.

What does it say about the betrayal of the Common Good when government preys on its own citizens?

Matthew Tully: Indiana's addiction to gambling - our state needs an intervention

Apr. 26, 2013

Written by

Matthew Tully

SHELBYVILLE — The sprawling casino here was heavy with the scent of cigarette smoke on a recent morning as hundreds of slot machines occupied gamblers who, it seemed, could be the grandparents of the pretty and handsome twentysomethings smiling from the oversized signs outside.

There isn’t much around the casino — a few cows on a farm in the distance, across the interstate, and a fast-food joint nearby. Those driving onto the casino property these days are greeted by signs on a fence that urge state lawmakers to approve table games run by actual people as opposed to machines.

That would boost revenue and, casino advocates have been relentlessly pointing out for months, create new jobs.

The table games issue was one of several casino-friendly ideas that lawmakers debated this year in the wake of new competition from casinos in other states. One state lawmaker referred to the table games proposal as the biggest jobs bill of the 2013 legislative session, and he was probably right. What a shame.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the industries lawmakers had spent the session trying to protect were in high-tech or other start-up fields that don’t do as much harm to an economy as they do good? Imagine if Indiana, instead of setting out to be a gambling capital two decades ago, had decided it would be the Midwest’s high-tech engine. Imagine if the state legislature spent as much time obsessing over good jobs that truly build an economy as it spends worrying about well-connected casinos, the ones that flood the Statehouse with lobbyists every year.

Our state business is gambling. It has been since the legislature took the easy route to new jobs two decades ago, sprinkling casinos around the state and sitting back as the money poured into state coffers. Now the state is addicted to the cash and lawmakers have to spend valuable time every year trying to protect casinos from competitive advances by counterparts in other states. This addiction leads to bad policies and proposals.

The addiction also leads to ridiculous arguments, such as the one put forward recently in an Evansville Courier editorial that said lawmakers who didn’t race to help Indiana casinos this year were negligently forcing them to “sink or swim without help to combat competition.” Oh, the horror of forcing a business to deal with competition! Listen, if a casino can’t make money, then it has bigger problems than the state legislature can solve.

As the four-month legislative session approached its end, Indiana’s ties to gambling were leading to all sorts of tired Statehouse debates. Should we allow live dealers to staff table games. (Who cares?) Should the phony riverboat law be changed to allow some casinos to move ashore? (Again, who cares?) Should casinos be allowed to give out betting vouchers without paying taxes on them. (Once again, who cares?)

This wouldn’t be so depressing if the legislature had tackled Indiana’s more serious issues this year in thoughtful ways. When I drive around Indiana I look at the landscape and wonder how it’s going to attract better jobs, revitalize dying rural counties and improve schools. I don’t worry much about the needs of casino bosses or factory farms that don’t want animal abuse videotaped — two topics of heavy discussion this session.

Even when the casinos don’t get everything they want, they still dominate the discussion and push more important issues to the side. It’s a distraction with a price.

Indiana is addicted to gambling. It needs an intervention. Its leaders need to tell the casino industry to go away for a while so they can focus on matters that will actually help the state’s future. Because adding a few blackjack dealers in Shelbyville will not be Indiana’s saving grace.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130426/NEWS08/304260052/Matthew-Tully-Indiana-s-addiction-gambling-our-state-needs-an-intervention