Gambling

When I was about twelve years old I regularly played penny-ante poker with a few of my friends from the neighborhood. One Friday night my friend Tom's dad came home from his job at the post office and horned his way into our game. I was winning and continued to win. As it got late I told everyone that I had to go home. Something interesting happened when I did that - Tom's dad said that I couldn't leave until I had given everyone a fair chance to win. Well, I stayed and lost all of my pennies before I left for home. It was a shameful night that would often be repeated in Tom's family.. how his dad took little Bobby's money.

That night I began to see the underbelly of gambling in the obsessive way that Tom's dad acted.. winning was more important to him than having fun. In my teen years I remember playing pool for money and it seemed that I was never good enough to win. I didn't like losing and began to realize that gambling a few dollars sucked the joy out of shooting pool. I guess that was my take away from these events - a friendly game of penny-ante poker and a competitive game of eight ball became something different when money was involved.

When my son was growing up I would sometimes say that I did not really believe in the gold standard. I would tell him that I believed in the work standard. In other words I believe that what makes paper money valuable is not precious metals such as gold or silver but precious labor. So often is the case with folks that gamble heavily and regularly do so because they are interested in windfall profits without commensurate work.

The Kansas City metroplex has four casinos and a new casino will be opening next June. Many people feel that this is a great thing for the area because of the increased tax revenue and jobs that are generated. In an article titled "The Gambling Scam on America's Poor" the Christian Science Monitor asks this question:

"What kind of government spends millions of taxpayer dollars peddling false hope to confiscate cash from its poorest citizens to fatten state coffers?"

Here are a few excerpts from that article:

"Three decades ago, there were no casinos outside Nevada, and only 13 states ran lotteries. Today 19 states support commercial gambling in densely populated markets near interstates, 28 states host Indian casinos, 41 run lotteries, and 43 allow track-side betting. Even so-called riverboat casinos have expanded rapidly as states lift wager limits to permit casinos they couldn't sanction on solid ground. Only Utah and Hawaii still ban gambling."
...
"Of the many ways government can raise money, gambling is the worst. It's regressive. And it can ruin lives.

To be sure, most states gain political support for their lotteries by earmarking them for appealing causes such as education, schools, roads, and parks. But there is no practical way to prevent a legislature from allocating these revenues to other reelection-prompting purposes – and most do.

Anyone comforted by the idea that gambling is voluntary should spend a day with the casino staffs that segment local markets, track prospects' and players' observed worth, define their predicted value, and systematically maximize individual "share of wallet" through targeted and customized promotional messages, limited-time cash offers, and carefully tracked time-to-response and spending analysis.

This is highly sophisticated and systematic coercion – and it works. At casinos such as Pechanga in Los Angeles, demand for drive-in slots has become so great that the parking lot is jammed on weekdays and two-hour lines often form on the weekends. State lotteries are among the largest buyers of radio advertising in their metro markets. What kind of government spends millions of taxpayer dollars peddling false hope to confiscate cash from its poorest citizens to fatten state coffers? The same government that spends more taxpayer money on ads offering help for addicted gamblers."

The article ends with this advice:

"In the next election, consider asking your state legislators whether their mandate is to serve or to swindle the people. No government should be running soak-the-weak scams."

As reported in this NY Times article, there is one presidential candidate who is an overt advocate of casino gambling. Possibly you may want to weigh this into your voting decision?