People are not alone in their addiction to gambling. Recent trends show governments can also become addicted once they start depending on gambling for revenue. And numerous reports reveal that decreased betting at casinos and gambling establishments across the nation is leaving many states scrambling for ways to replace the revenue they’ve depended on for years.
According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), 48 states plus the District of Columbia have some form of legalized gambling. In 2007, gambling gross revenue exceeded $92 billion, but the states need more money.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that many states are moving toward expanding their gambling efforts to combat the “drop in gambling revenue” and “keep their cut of the profits rolling in.”
Although Iowa is said to receive about $300 million from gambling each year, State Rep. Kraig Paulsen reportedly told AP, “Absolutely, we’re addicted to gambling dollars. The current budget couldn’t be close to being balanced without that money.”
Birmingham attorney Eric Johnston said, “The economy gets addicted to the tax dollars they get from it. It’s a source of revenue they begin to get. Once you begin to get that tax, you don’t want to give it up.”
But experts have no way of knowing when or if the gambling climate will improve.
“As the United States grappled with the worst recession in a generation during 2009, consumers cut back on their discretionary spending, and those shrinking travel and leisure budgets led to a decline in gross gaming revenues for the second consecutive year,” the AGA reported in its State of the States Survey of Casino Entertainment. “A majority of states followed the national trend and saw their gaming revenues diminish in 2009, and all markets were affected to some extent by the drop in consumer spending.”
Even though gambling has existed in many areas for years, evidence of its positive effects may be hard to find.
The AGA publication revealed that although Nevada has more casinos than all other states combined, other sources report that it leads the nation in unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcy filings and credit card delinquency. And two of Nevada’s cities with the largest unemployment rates are Las Vegas and Reno.
Similarly, Mississippi, which has been mentioned numerous times as an example of successful gambling by Alabama’s pro-gambling politicians, has struggled to rise in state rankings, even with its gambling revenue.
According to The Meridian Star, “casino gaming was a $2.4 billion industry in Mississippi in 2009,” but Mississippi has consistently had one of the highest poverty levels and lowest education levels among the states.
“Even with all the money coming from gambling each year, … they (Mississippi) are still at the bottom of the heap,” Johnston said. “The big problem is the cost of the gambling industry goes way up to handle all of the problems that occur. … You’ve got a lot of extra costs for the government that go with it.”
Alabama’s Greene County is no exception.
“Out of their own mouths (at the public hearing meeting for this year’s gambling expansion bill), they (Greene County residents and officials) talked about how poor they were and how they needed gambling for money,” Johnston said. “If it’s so good, why don’t they all have big fancy cars and new houses and nice streets and beautiful public buildings? But they don’t have any of that stuff. It’s still very economically depressed, and they’ve had gambling for years.”
Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls added, “At least two municipalities (in Jefferson County) have expressed anger over the closings of the bingo parlors and stated that they needed that funding to operate the city. One was in my jurisdiction (Tarrant), and one was in the Bessemer jurisdiction (Fairfield). … I think they were deceived by the gambling interests who led them to believe that their operations would be legal. … and they were willing to do this because they needed the revenue.
“I believe that the proponents of gambling were approaching the municipalities knowing that they were in need of revenue streams due to the downturn in the economy,” he said.
“They pitched the idea of opening bingo parlors saying it was legal for them to do so, many times quoting a letter written by Attorney General Troy King which purported to allow locations to hire employees and pay them a salary,” Falls said. “(They said) if you’ll pass an ordinance allowing us to do this, your city will benefit from having to pay the license fees and the public will benefit from having jobs all the time ignoring that the law did not allow them to operate as a for-profit business.”
(TAB)
Share with others: