Bruce Barron, No Dice Comments on table games in Pennsylvania January 6, 2010 For more information: (412) 835-0614 or nodicepa@aol.com
I have received two interview requests in the last two days, reminding me that I should put out a statement or people might think I’ve dropped dead. Go ahead, quote me and make my day.
This past weekend I was at the National Holocaust Museum, viewing again the incredible power of that site’s moving displays. The museum testifies to the horrors that occur when a corrupt and conscience-less leader, with support or at least tolerance from the majority, identifies a minority as unwanted and dispensable.
Here in Pennsylvania a dysfunctional state legislature continues to hoodwink the people with promised benefits while acting as if the documentable 2 to 3 percent of the adult population who suffer from serious gambling addiction are expendable.
Pennsylvania’s rapid progression toward table games is certainly predictable. Across the United States, wherever commercial casinos have been legalized, they end up getting what they want, because state governments are addicted to the revenue source.
Table games in Pennsylvania are a short-term ruse and a long-term travesty. Thompson and Eadington, the widely recognized gambling experts at UNLV, have stated consistently that gambling does not make economic sense unless you can attract half your gamblers from elsewhere. Already Pennsylvania casinos overwhelmingly capitalize on our own citizens, and Ohio and Maryland’s legalization of gambling expansions will make this bad bet even worse.
We let casinos serve alcohol to gamblers (wouldn’t used car dealers love that freedom!), let them prey on people 24/7, give them smoking exemptions, and are now poised to let them extend credit to addicted gamblers. In defending “slots on credit,” an override of virtually the only consumer protection measure in the 2004 slots law, Rep. Dante Santoni and others repeatedly say that they are conforming to “the industry standard.” What better way to show who’s driving our legislature’s decisions—the casino industry.
The balloon will burst—it’s just a matter of time. Already gambling revenues are dropping. The Rivers Casino is bringing in less than half the winnings it projected, arousing the hope of a quick bankruptcy. Americans are recognizing the empty promises of gambling expansion. After all, the money that states reap from gambling activity doesn’t fall from the trees—it is taken from elsewhere in the economy, resulting in lost productivity, harm to other legitimate businesses, bankruptcies, and embezzlements along with immense human suffering.
The tide will turn. Russia experienced the horror of casinos for two decades and banished them in 2009. Too bad Rendell couldn’t have learned from Putin. But gambling cannot save us; it can only impoverish us. The sooner we reverse our descent into increased gambling, the more impoverishment we will prevent.
For more information or additional comments, you can reach Bruce Barron at 412-835-0614. |