Several states are turning to gambling for potential income amid budget shortfalls, even as the American Gaming Association reported that revenue from casino gambling fell 5.5 percent overall last year.
“It is deeply disappointing that some of our states are turning to gambling to help them close their budget gaps,” said Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“If gambling was unacceptable when the state economies were doing well, it should be even less acceptable when their economies slow down. Government programs aren’t the only thing hurting in these difficult times,” Duke said. “Families are hurting as well. These state governments should be cutting their own expenses rather than looking for easy fixes that prey on people, especially gambling addicts, to close their budget shortfalls.”
The Wall Street Journal, in a May 11 article with the headline “Strapped States Find New Virtues in ‘Vice,’” said nationwide the public-funding crisis has led state and local leaders to condone activities and businesses they’d be apt to restrict in better economic times.
California, for instance, is debating whether to allow and tax Internet poker, which is prohibited by federal law. A measure will be on the ballot in that state in November to decide whether to expand and tax marijuana sales, and at least half a dozen other states are considering the revenue potential marijuana might provide.
Some states have loosened decades-old restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales, the newspaper said. One commentator said “blue laws” are a common casualty of recessions. “Every time there’s an economic contraction, sure enough, you start seeing local repeal efforts,” the economics professor said.
“Prior to the Great Depression, the U.S. had a near-total ban on gambling, and since 1920 barred alcohol sales,” The Journal said. “But the government legalized horse-race betting during the depression and in 1933 repealed Prohibition, partially due to the high cost of law enforcement and need for tax revenue.
“Atlantic City voted to allow gambling in 1976, when the city was economically depressed and nationwide economic growth was slowing. The early-1990s recession prompted states like Mississippi, Louisiana and Indiana to bank on new gambling facilities for revenue. And after the 2001 terrorist attacks, New York expanded video gambling in bars to help make up for projected losses from lower tourism.”
Duke warned against following the same pattern in the current economic slowdown.
“By turning to gambling to raise additional money, the states are sending the wrong message to their citizens,” he said. “Instead of modeling good financial discipline and reducing their spending, the state that turns to gambling to plug funding shortfalls is communicating to its citizens that it is preferable to prey on the weak than to live within one’s means.” (BP)
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