If the government wants to stimulate the economy, it should outlaw gambling, an expert on legal policy told a national gathering of antigambling activists.
“Gambling is a catalyst for economic downturn,” said John Kindt, professor of commerce and legal policy at the University of Illinois. “If you want your 401(k) to come back, recriminalize gambling.”
Kindt, who holds four graduate degrees in business and law, said a ban on gambling would boost the economy by freeing up dollars for consumer spending that now go to the gaming industry. He spoke to the annual meeting of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, Sept. 27–29 in Arlington, Texas.
“It’s time to wipe the slate clean,” Kindt said. “Recriminalize gambling, just like we did in this country 100 years ago.”
Kindt cited a 1999 report of the U.S. Gambling Commission study linking the rise of legalized gambling in recent years with increased addiction, bankruptcies and crime. The commission called for a moratorium on gambling expansion and urged that “convenience gambling” — such as video-gambling machines in stores — be outlawed. The study said gambling benefits the owners of gambling establishments at the expense of local economies.
Kindt said the United States is experiencing the “third wave” of gambling expansion. The first was the period of state lotteries in the original colonies, from the early days of the republic to the Jackson era. The second was the period of westward expansion following the Civil War. Each ended when citizens demanded laws against gambling.
Kindt said gambling drains the economy by taking money away from grocery stores and retail businesses and putting it in the hands of an industry that produces no product.
While advocates of legalized gambling say it brings in revenues needed for education and other uses, Kindt said it actually has led to higher taxes, loss of jobs, economic disruption of nongambling businesses, increased crime and higher social welfare costs.
If gambling were banned, he said, those social costs would drop, tax revenues from consumer goods would increase and money would be pumped into the productive economic sector.
Kindt acknowledged that a ban on gambling would leave some cities with huge, empty casinos, but he proposed positive uses for those facilities.
“Turn the casinos into universities and high tech parks — institutions for helping people,” he suggested.
Tom Coates, executive director of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Des Moines, Iowa, said he sees a correlation between the expansion of gambling and the “explosion of personal debt.”
Casinos, in particular, create a “fantasy world” that encourages personal irresponsibility, Coates said.
Unlike “destination gambling” sites in Las Vegas, most local casinos in the United States “prey on the native population, “ he said.
“Casinos thrive in an atmosphere of ‘no more delayed gratification,’” Coates said. “They encourage people to mortgage their future.”
With its promises of revenues, gambling is a tempting lure to politicians seeking a way around making hard decisions about spending and taxation, a member of the Texas Legislature told the gathering. “Gambling allows legislators to abdicate their duty and their fiscal responsibility,” said Rep. Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston.
In some cases, it can even lead to political corruption. The day before the national coalition met, Linda Cloud resigned as executive director of the Texas lottery after admitting that she had lied about information regarding a lottery commissioner. She was the third director to resign the agency amid controversy.
Weston Ware, past president of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and longtime associate with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, said that is an example of the problems that can occur when government gets in the business of promoting gambling.
“I’m not surprised. When you have an agency that is built on smoke and mirrors, you have to expect that something like this can occur,” said Ware, a spokesman for Texans Against Gambling. (ABP)
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