No Dice newsletter

February 7, 2009

 

The Governor is at it again

Well, no one can charge Governor Rendell with lacking creativity. In his budget address he not only called for the legalization of video poker, but claimed that doing so would not represent an expansion of gambling, since video poker exists already.

 

This last claim is inventive, to say the least. Consider that the state has been giving grants to law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal gambling, because now that the state is relying on casino revenue it doesn’t want competition. With this heightened threat of arrest, does the Governor really think bars and clubs are running as much video poker activity now as they would if they were all permitted to promote legal machines?

 

In today’s Post-Gazette, Gary Rotstein pokes further holes in the Governor’s fanciful contentions. Rotstein points out that, according to the Rendell administration’s own projections, legalized video poker would result in 35,200 machines in bars, restaurants, and clubs—more than twice as many as the current State Police estimate of 17,000 machines.

 

Rotstein quoted from our statement on the Governor’s proposal. Here’s the full statement:

 

“In the Governor’s call for still more gambling in Pennsylvania we see the height of hypocrisy. First the state says video poker is bad because it competes with state-sponsored gambling; now the Governor says video poker is good and should happen in every Pennsylvania community.

 

“Apparently the Governor’s only guide to right and wrong is that anything that transfers more money from gambling victims to state coffers is right.

 

“The Governor denies that his proposal is an expansion of gambling because some illegal gambling now exists. He wants to ‘take control of’ the video poker industry. If this is his reasoning, why not take control of the cocaine and prostitution industries too?

 

“In response to the Governor’s proposal, the General Assembly should commission a study on where the state’s gambling revenues are coming from and on what the social and economic impacts have been. Such a study would show that more gambling can only make a bad situation worse.”

 

Former No Dice president was quoted in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article on video poker (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_610152.html). And the generally pro-casino Post-Gazette came out firmly in opposition to this proposal: to http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09036/947035-35.stm. The PG even titled its editorial “No Dice” despite the fact that video poker machines don’t usually have dice. We appreciate the recognition anyhow!

 

More sobbing from the Governor

Governor Rendell’s budget address also contained heart-throbbing reflections on the revenue losses many states are sustaining. “In some cases,” he said, “they have had to make very painful decisions about which of their most vulnerable citizens they must abandon when it comes to providing the medical or social services that are the very fabric of the social safety net.”

 

Of course Governor Rendell’s decision which vulnerable citizens to abandon wasn’t painful at all—he chose to abandon the citizens vulnerable to gambling addiction.

 

Web site update

Sorry, with my daughter gone to college the No Dice web site has not been updated for a while. But my self-taught 13-year-old believes he can bring it up to date this weekend. Check on Monday and tell us what you think. Maybe some day one of these kids will teach me.

 

Other news you can use:

 

A Montreal college bans card playing on campus. According to the academic dean, some students were thousands of dollars in debt and there were tales of loan sharks coming to the school: http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090203/Mtl_gamblingvanier_090203/20090203/

 

Maryland has legalized slot machines, but the bids for casino licenses have turned out to be disappointingly thin: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/18631231/detail.html

 

Data from Oklahoma show that the state can’t salve its conscience over creating gambling addiction by financing compulsive gambling counselors, because very few addicted gamblers go for help: http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=9766676&nav=menu410_3

 

A former Arizona police lieutenant admits to embezzling $560,000 over five years to finance his gambling habit: http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=9736787&nav=14RT

 

In a bad economy, desperate people may be gambling more. At least the Wisconsin help line, whose 12,000 calls in 2008 marked a 28 percent increase, thinks so:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-gamblinghelp,0,1433879.story