Wanna Bet?

I arrived home this evening to find the Franklin County Democratic Party sample ballot waiting for me. Imagine my dismay when I found that the Democratic Party is urging me to vote yes on Issue 3!

For those outside of Ohio, Issue 3 is a proposed constitutional amendment to build casinos in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo. I can barely even begin to describe in this space what's wrong with this picture.

First of all, a constitutional amendment? Really? We need to have it encoded in the very fabric of our state government that there should be 4 casinos in Ohio? How is this possibly a good idea?

Next, the way that this has been promoted just rubs me the wrong way. The overall message is, "everyone else is doing it, so why don't we?" I'm pretty sure my parents taught me that's no argument for doing something. As the tired old response goes, "if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you too?" But what makes it even worse in this context is how it sets up "us" against "them". Those people in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and >gasp< CANADA are getting OUR money! Ohioans are just throwing money at them, and it should stay here! One ad featured two old high school friends on a bus to somewhere not Ohio, as they talked about how awful it was that they had to go somewhere else for their monthly gambling outing. Oh yeah, good clean fun. Let's go blow our wads on pointless games of chance where the house, inevitably, wins.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a gambler. I've tried gambling in friendly games of nickel poker and discovered I'm just not good at it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game. But knowing that I'm at best an average player there's just no attraction for me to go spend my money on bright lights and loud noises.

But my last and most significant problem with Issue 3 is the reason why the Democratic Party and so many otherwise sane organizations are supporting it. Ohio needs money. Like everyone else we've been hit hard and need to find ways to make up for the loss of income as jobs were lost. But instead of doing the sensible thing and raising taxes on those who can afford it while also scaling back where we can, we're trying to find ways to get free money. The casinos look attractive because hey, it's money that we don't have to spend, right?

Friends, there's always a cost. This isn't free money. This isn't recouping the same money that's currently leaving the state. This is money taken from hard working Ohioans and given to large corporations. This is far worse than a new tax. This is lining the pockets of wealthy corporations while the state comes begging for a less than 40% share. And the people who are spending this money aren't high rollers. If we're lucky they're at least only spending what they can afford, but chances are they're not. And what of those who will become addicted, ruining themselves and their families and becoming dependent on already strained state resources in the process?

In the name of avoiding higher taxes we're pillaging the people who are least able to afford it. Give me a tax any day. At least then I know that all the money is going to the state. We can all argue about how we're spending it and whether it's well-spent or not, but we have no say in how those developers use their money. They could give it all to charity or they could buy another yacht. But we have no say.

I don't have a moral problem with gambling, but from a purely rational point of view this is a bad idea. It only seems like a good idea if you think there's no consequence to getting this money. But there's always consequences, whether you feel them directly from taxes, or indirectly as bad choices make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and lower all our standards of living. We can be so much better as a society together if we all pitch in what we can. But short-term rewards always win out. I hope Issue 3 bucks that trend and dies the death it deserves at the polls tomorrow.