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Massachusetts Legislators Ponder the Downside of Approving Casinos

Wonderful story in the Boston Globe (credit, where credit is due) about gambling in Massachusetts made a lot of sense to me so I thought I’d go over some of the points made by the reporter.

In Mass, where legislators are about to approve casinos, they have promised to control the spread of gambling. But there is already the pressure to expand into slots, video gaming.

Point is, install a casino in your state and it inevitably legalizes gambling.

Now look, it’s all done to raise money to help financially strapped states.

Michigan, for example, which had just two casinos in 2000, has 23 today; and in Pennsylvania, which has nine gambling halls, lawmakers are proposing to help close next year’s $1.6 billion budget gap by allowing betting games in taverns.

This I like, by the way. As a Pennsylvanian.

“Once you get the breakthrough of legalization, there is always a push for expansion, and states almost never pull back,’’ said Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California who tracks the gambling industry. “It always happens one way or another.’’

Expansion can dramatically expand access to gambling and dilute the market, cutting revenue at large casinos and increasing the costs of addiction, crime, and government regulation, critics said.

Even gambling supporters in Massachusetts agree the trend is worrisome.

But it is inevitable. And why should it not be?

I love to gamble. But I won’t do it illegally. Why not allow me to gamble at my own pace where I want to? As long as I am not hurting anyone. Or hurting my family. Why not?

What do you think?