There were two big stories about gambling last week. Seemingly unrelated, they are pieces of an all-too-revealing whole.
On the same day millions of Americans thrilled at the good fortune of the Ohio machine shop buddies who won the Powerball jackpot, management at Arlington International Racecourse said there will be no racing there again next summer. Powerball paid $161.5 million. Thoroughbred racing, at Arlington at least, doesn’t pay at all.
What does it mean?
Darned if I know. But let me enumerate some implications:
No. 1–This nation has gone on an incredible gambling toot. Powerball mania is only the latest, loudest, sign that gambling, in all its forms (legal, illegal and state-sponsored) has become the national pastime. As for the old national pastime, watch for a slight revival once people discover the Las Vegas sports books are handicapping the McGwire-Sosa-Griffey home-run derby.
No. 2–If we tried to ban all gambling, as we do addictive drugs, bet-mania would slack off somewhat. . .and then go directly underground. The public benefit from gambling would go away but not its downside. Lost proceeds from state lotteries and casino taxes would have to be made up with higher general taxation. Mafia types, gang-bangers and other slime would reclaim a business that once was primarily theirs, broken legs and all. In other words, prohibition is not a viable option, no matter what the goody-goodies say, or what says the upcoming report of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (whose membership has been loaded like dice against gambling).
No. 3–The general public’s taste in gambling, as in many other pursuits, bears no relation to aesthetics, quality or even the likelihood of a fair return. Not only were the odds of winning last week’s Powerball game worse than 1 in 80 million, the hyped-up contest, like most state lotteries, pays out only half what participants put in. No respectable form of gambling–not even the pull-tab games at my veteran’s club–would dare keep as much of the “drop” as do these lotteries and their politically connected contractors.
As for aesthetics, how can one compare a sunny summer afternoon at Arlington International Racecourse, surrounded by the sport of kings, with calling out your lucky Lotto number to the cashier at the 7-Eleven? Or with sitting all day in a smoky, dimly lit riverboat casino, feeding quarters into a one-armed bandit?
No. 4–State-sponsored lotteries are the most regressive–and therefore reprehensible–form of gambling. With their huge but virtually unwinnable jackpots, their low ante and sales locations in every neighborhood, they are, in the words of a long-dead philosopher, a tax on ignorance. Is this how we want to finance the education of the schoolchildren of Illinois? Or worse, the schoolchildren of Indiana? Last week hundreds of Chicagoans too poor to own cars rode two and three CTA buses to get from their homes to the state line, all so they could trade their rent money for chances at the Powerball jackpot.
No. 5–There is no sign our hunger for gambling will be satisfied anytime soon. There are 37 states in the lottery business and combined annual sales are soaring to $50 billion. Las Vegas, which was supposed to be hurt by legalization elsewhere, is adding more hotel rooms now than at any time in its history. Illinois, with its 10 riverboat franchises located inconveniently outside its major population center (Cook County), is getting eaten alive by bigger and better riverboats in northwest Indiana. Iowa and Missouri boats flank us to the west. To the north, in Wisconsin, there are cash bingo parlors and casinos and dog tracks. The Internet, meanwhile, is exploding with virtual, and possibly illegal, casinos that accept credit card numbers.
Where all this is headed, I do not know. But with prohibition not an option and proliferation a certainty, I would argue that a just society–even a free-market one like ours–ought to stop playing its citizens for suckers and start helping them navigate the land of luck.
Tax rates ought to be standardized across various forms of gambling–including state lotteries–so the government favors no game or format over another. A substantial portion of the tax should be set aside to fund addiction recovery programs. Bet-to-win ratios ought to be prominently displayed inside and outside every gaming venue–the way ingredients are listed on cans of food–so players know where they get the best, and worst, returns.
And finally, once fair rules are in place among all states with legalized gambling, Illinois ought to start playing to win. Instead of watching our gaming dollars flow to Indiana and Nevada, our state should have the snappiest state lottery and the biggest, best-located casinos. Put slot machines at O’Hare International Airport and, yes, at Arlington International Racecourse, if that’s what it takes.
This gambling mania may, in time, run its course. We can only hope.
In the meantime, let’s stop gouging our own poor while shooing away the high-rollers to other states.