People Against a Casino Town
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States want something for nothing
 
 Gambling is about getting something for nothing. This is what the states are doing by adopting gambling.
They want something for nothing.
So rather than making the hard decisions about how you really raise money,
they figure they can get the money easy. They'll open up a casino.
Well, it's not a long-term solution to our fiscal problems.
It's not going to solve the problems of better schools, better housing, better health care.
For those you have to address tax issues.

 
7/19/06

Casinos, Development and the Boardwalk of Dreams
By Caryn Hunt

Proponents tout casinos as economic development engines in a city that needs jobs. But will the tremendous wealth generated by this regressive tax trickle down? Author and Temple Prof Bryant Simon argues that if Atlantic City is any indication casinos are not a smart bet.

In a recent interview, Bryant Simon, a history professor at Temple University and author of Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America,  explained that though casinos were supposed to solve the economic and developmental woes of Atlantic City, they have not delivered on those promises. "Atlantic City casinos generate a tremendous amount of revenue, yet the city around them is poor and moldering." "The biggest problem with gambling is that gambling is all about taking people's discretionary income," says Simon. "You trap them inside, you take all their money and they don't have any money left. So the lesson is, Atlantic City casinos generate a tremendous amount of revenue, yet the city around them is poor and moldering." Money that people would normally spend on a variety of non-essential items end up in casino coffers. "People on their way to casinos don't stop and buy coffee," Simon points out. "People on their way to casinos don't stop for anything. They go to the casinos. On their way out they don't buy anything either because they don't have any money." According to Simon, casino revenues that were supposed to stimulate the local economy in Atlantic City more often funded projects that helped the gaming industry. "There is some housing, but the lion's share of the money went to clear paths for cars to the casinos. Literally. They built a tunnel under the city to get people from the expressway to the Borgata faster." In Philadelphia, says Simon, "the convention center and casinos are attempts to lure suburbanites in, and the theory is there'll be trickle down. But the story in Atlantic City is there isn't a whole lot of trickle down. Most of these are outside corporations. Local businesses spend more in a city than outside corporations."

Low Wage Jobs

While it's true that casinos stimulate economic development in the form of jobs, they are usually low-wage jobs. "The poor are supposedly going to get these jobs," says Simon, "but if they're not union jobs, they're going to stink. If they are the same service jobs that fuel the convention center business, then the poor are going to be consigned to jobs that leave them poor. There are union jobs at the convention center, but the unions have not made great inroads in housekeeping, in food service, the parking services. So, basically, you will create low wage service jobs and at the end of the day, that's not the answer to poverty. It's a stopgap measure. For the city to work as a city, you need people to move back in, spend money and live here, and really create industry."

Impact on Communities

Though data on the economic impact of gambling on communities exists, largely funded by the gaming industry, very little information exists about the social impacts. According to a government report issued by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission in 1999, gambling is an addictive activity, and "the presence of a gambling facility within 50 miles roughly doubles the prevalence of problem and pathological gamblers". The same report stated that gambling addiction was more prevalent among the poor.

Boardwalk of Dreams

During the first half of the 20th century, Atlantic City was the nation's most popular middle-class resort--the home of the famed Boardwalk, the Miss America Pageant, and the board game Monopoly. By the late 1960s, it had become a symbol of urban decay and blight, compared by journalists to bombed-out Dresden and war-torn Beirut. Several decades and a dozen casinos later, Atlantic City is again one of America's most popular tourist spots, with thirty-five million visitors a year. Yet most stay for a mere six hours, and the highway has replaced the Boardwalk as the city's most important thoroughfare. Today the city doesn't have a single movie theater and its one supermarket is a virtual fortress protected by metal detectors and security guards...

Though problem and pathological gamblers make up less than 5% of the general population, they are the bread and butter of the casino industry, with different studies estimating that they compose as much as 30% to 50% of it's customer base. These people are the source of revenue the state seeks to use to fund its programs. Gamblers aren't the only ones that become addicted to gambling; states addicted to gambling revenues tend to expand gaming laws when searching for money to fund essential programs.

Some form of gambling exists in all but two states. States that share a border often feel the need to expand their gaming options in response to expansion in neighboring states. Oregon Governor Theodore Kulongoski, when he was the state's Attorney General, wrote in the New York Times, "In Oregon, we are paying a price for our heavy dependence on gambling. Our 12-year-old lottery has helped create a rapidly expanding betting market in which gambling drives public policy, not the other way around."

Casinos as a Regressive Tax

Americans don't want to pay taxes and politicians don't like to raise them, so what's the alternative? How do you raise revenues? You do it regressively. "Look at the sales tax. The rich don't eat more than the poor," Simon points out. "They might spend more money on food, but not a whole lot more. Yet they're taxed at the same rate. Sales tax taxes a larger proportion of poor people's income. It's actually throwing the burden onto the poor. Same thing with gambling. The poor tend to gamble more, though not a lot more. The lottery totally preys upon the poor. So the spirit of something for nothing, which animates gambling, which animates the state, is what led to the shutdown in New Jersey last week. Corzine couldn't balance the budget and what did he do? He wanted another sales tax. We've flattened our taxes so there's sort of a similar rate for everyone, a straight property tax, regressive taxes on fees and services. But until you go to something graduated you're never going to raise enough revenues. And that's what happened in New Jersey. So in the end they just added to the tax burden on the poor by raising the sales tax to 7%. It's crazy. But gambling's the same thing, it's part of this. It's part of not taking seriously what we need to do.

Something for Nothing

Gambling is about getting something for nothing. This is what the states are doing by adopting gambling. They want something for nothing. So rather than making the hard decisions about how you really raise money, they figure they can get the money easy. They'll open up a casino. Well, it's not a long-term solution to our fiscal problems. It's not going to solve the problems of better schools, better housing, better health care. For those you have to address tax issues."

http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2006/07/26529.shtml


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