A Sucker's Bet

I had to laugh when I read that Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn plans to build a $2.4 billion mega-resort on the site of the recently imploded Desert Inn. Laugh, because the resort isn’t being built by Steve Wynn, it’s being built by losers.

Let’s face it, all that glitz and glamour we see in Las Vegas and other gambling destinations around the country isn’t paid for with the profits from cheesy entertainment and early-bird prime rib specials. If it were, I’d open a Karaoke Cafeteria. But it’s not. Those glistening neon nightmares are built upon a sucker's bet.

Unfortunately, gamblers aren’t the only ones to fall for the seductive lure of a quick and easy buck. Local governments are just as gullible. The City of Monroe is the latest to fall under the spell of easy gambling money, as they consider a casino proposed by the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma in an effort to dig the city out of a state declared fiscal emergency.

Let’s hope they don’t fall for it. While the increased tax revenues, promised development and new jobs are all enticing, they do not come without a price. For a city like Monroe, which is geographically primed for development as growth travels north on I-75, that price is not one worth paying.

To be sure, for most people gambling is little more than another entertainment option. We can choose to blow fifty or a hundred bucks on dinner and a movie or a night at the ballpark, and come home with nothing more to show for it than the memory of a night out. Or we can blow that money at a casino. No big deal.

On the other hand, how often do you hear of people spending their rent money on a ticket to see the Reds? Or the grocery money to see a movie? Perhaps never. But we see it with casinos more often than the gaming industry would like to admit. Do we really need a local gambling fix so badly that we’re willing to risk ruining lives in order to fill government coffers?

The worst thing about it is that gambling is hardest on those who can least afford it. Far too often low-income gamblers are not playing for fun, but to change their lives. Yet lives rarely change for the better in a casino, no matter what the ads may say. I find it ironic that so many are willing to embrace what essentially amounts to taxing the poor so a few might become wealthy.

The biggest challenge facing those who live in poverty is understanding that escaping it is a long-term prospect. It takes time, effort and discipline. Gambling’s promise of a quick fix undermines that premise. So not only does it make the personal financial situation worse, it also destroys the values that would make a better life possible. Is this really the way Monroe wants to fix its own financial mess?

Monroe is the next exit up I-75 from the booming West Chester/Liberty Township area. A little patience and they’ll begin to reap the same financial rewards as their neighbors to the south. But jump on the gambling bandwagon and suddenly Exit 29 becomes the vice-and-crime gateway, what with Bristol’s, Hustler, a casino and a prison all within sight of each other. That may be a full house, but it’s hardly a winning hand.