Calif. sells soul to gambling

 

In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise. In an agreement between pro-slavery and anti-slavery states, Missouri would be admitted to the Union as a slave state in return for designating other territories of the U.S. to be off limits to slavery. The convoluted thinking was that by agreeing to the limited expansion of the evil of slavery, we would be able to control the evil of slavery. And, by the way, the addition of Missouri to the Union would be beneficial to our national economy.

Now our Governor, who tries desperately to be well liked above all else, along with our Assembly and Senate, who try desperately to be reëlected above all else, have determined that we have been engaged to the gambling interests long enough. It’s time to get married. With an “it’s the economy stupid” mentality, the California Compromise is considered a way by which with the spread of an evil, we could gain control of the evil and, more importantly, benefit the state economy. The sad fact is that they don’t see the evil for what it is.

 

California has a $100 billion budget. Propositions 94-97 will create the biggest casinos in the U.S. For this payoff to the gambling lobbyists and tribes, the State will receive an estimated $200 million a year extra, only 0.2 percent of our budget, allegedly growing to a projected total revenue for the state of $9 billion over the 23-year life of the tribal compacts. But now it’s official. California will have gone into the gambling business, as our Governor has become a co-conspirator with the gambling industry to fleece the public.

Now, you would think that some groups would oppose this 17,000 slot machine expansion, and they do. Reading the State Voter Guide, you will find that the unions don’t feel adequately protected or represented in this deal, and neither do the teachers, who are upset that the extra funds aren’t earmarked for education. In other words, the opposition is coming from those who weren’t invited to the party, those whose only real complaint is that they won’t be able to get their fingers in the pie.

The fact is that these propositions are bad for California because gambling is bad for California. Why is it that neither the legislature nor the Governor mentions the fact that before California can receive $9 billion in gambling revenue the hard-working people of California must first lose $60 billion at the slots. That’s right — $60 billion of paychecks, depleted IRA’s and social security checks are required to produce $9 billion in revenue, and we’re being told this is a good deal.

 

This is $60 billion that won’t be spent on braces, utility bills, mortgage payments or washing machines. This is $60 billion that won’t be used for starting new businesses, invested in equipment or placed into retirement accounts. This is $60 billion that goes down the toilet to a septic tank of gambling operators so that they are assured of having enough funds to purchase new legislators after their minions are termed out of office. I thought prostitution was only legal in Nevada. I must have been on vacation the week they decided to legalize it in Sacramento.

The fact is that every study of gambling has shown that three things occur, not sometimes, but every single time gambling comes into a community: there is an increase in crime (from burglary to embezzlement), an increase in divorce, and an increase in bankruptcy. Conservative estimates have placed the “cost” of gambling at $3-5 of social cost for every dollar of gambling revenue. Now, let’s go back and do the math. It turns out that our $9 billion “windfall” is really a $27-$45 billion plunge to death on top of the $60 billion amputation. For the first time, revenue in California will be tied directly to how much of your savings and paychecks you throw away at the casinos. The more we lose, the more politicians have to spend. If the Governor wanted to rape, pillage and plunder the hard-working people of California, he could not have devised a better plan. Who needs Attila the Hun to do it when you have a legislature at your disposal?

 

That Missouri Compromise? Politicians thought that it was the way by which to avert a civil war. Little did they realize that it only ensured a national bloodbath. In similar fashion, the “cure” for our financial woes will become part of the disease. That which is thought to be a way by which to avert economic devastation will only ensure our demise. Like the old medical treatment of bloodletting, by which, it was believed, the disease could be removed by removing the blood, these propositions will be the bloodletting of California. Actually those doctors had some success. They did in fact get rid of the disease — when the patient died from the cure.

 

 

Copyright © 2008 by Rob Walter

 

Rob Walter is a Santa Ynez Valley lawyer and host of the weekly radio talk show Radio Free California.