“You hardly want to criticize a business person for opening up a successful business,” said Oregon Lottery spokesman Chuck Baumann. “When retailers are making money, the state of Oregon is also receiving some of that, too.”
That's from Todd Murphy's excellent article in yesterday's Tribune on how Craig Estey, the owner of a chain of video poker dens called Dotty's, has defied Oregon law to become the single biggest beneficiary of Oregon's misguided experiment in state-sponsored gambling.
And it's a compelling argument for dismantling the Oregon Lottery, and disavowing it as a legitimate source of revenue for vital public programs.
As much as I sympathize with the poor people on the Gulf Coast left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, I admit to experiencing some schadenfreude at the destruction of the floating casinos that have become such a significant part of the tax landscape in the Southern states that bore the brunt of the storm. In Biloxi, Mississippi alone, Katrina destroyed, gutted, or sunk these "money-making casino" barges:
- the Isle of Capri casino
- President Casino
- the Grand Casino pier, with two barge casinos
- Treasure Bay Pirate Ship casino
- Palace casino
I say good riddance to them all. Maybe now, in rebuilding, the state of Mississippi will rethink its regressive tax policies and the "easy" money gotten from gambling, which is in reality a largely invisible tax on the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the addicted, and the easily tempted.
Todd Murphy's accompanying piece on the pseudonymous Elizabeth, a 68-year-old retired government employee and self-admitted "problem gambler", illustrates perfectly the evils of state-sponsored gambling:
"Elizabeth, who asked that her real name not be used, figures that today, four years later, she’s lost 'thousands' of dollars playing video poker. She’s gambled from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. on many days. Some nights, even though she doesn’t drive, she’s gambled until 2 a.m., then walked home from the lottery outlet with her housemate."
But the more damning statistic is this one from Jeff Marotta, a state official dealing with programs for gamblers like Elizabeth:
"Several studies have suggested that from 35 percent to 50 percent of revenue from video gambling devices comes from problem gamblers, says Marotta."
It's clear from Murphy's article that the Oregon Lottery, a virtually autonomous state agency, won't do anything about Dotty's and Estey's, brazen flouting of Oregon law. But that's what happens when a scofflaw like Estey is making big money for the state.
As I wrote in this post back in January, state-sponsored gambling is itself a "crime" against good tax policy, absolving our elected "leaders" of the responsibility for crafting a fair system of taxation:
"The proponents of state lotteries and casino gambling are careful never to use the word 'gambling' in their proposals. It's always "gaming", as if dumping a few hundred bucks in a video poker machine is no worse than, say, playing a game of checkers. Besides, part of what you lose -- and you will lose-- goes into the public coffers to support needed services. And best of all, gambling, the state-sponsored kind, absolves our legislative leaders of the distressing responsibility of imposing taxes on the people who elect them."
I say it's time to elect leaders who promise to wean the state from it's gambling addiction. It's time to abolish the Oregon Lottery!
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