"My gambling days are over," says William Bennett. Right. And I will never eat another doughnut.
Fact is, humans are weak and temptations are strong. Gambling is one of the strongest. Which is why Bennett, the author of every virtue best seller except the Bible, found himself losing $8 million yet claiming he did it to "relax." If it is truly relaxing to lose $8 million, it must feel like a day at the spa to go bankrupt.
While I wish Bennett well on his withdrawal (from gambling, that is, not the bank), in truth, he is living in the wrong country. Gambling is exploding in the U.S. - on riverboats, restaurants, reservations - and the gambling industry is only too happy to addict us all.
As Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association and former Republican national chairman, cheerfully notes: "There are only three states that don't have some legal form of gambling: Utah, Hawaii and Tennessee. And Tennessee will have a lottery before the year is over."
What happened to the anti-gambling laws of just a generation ago? Where are the lawmakers who were supposed to protect us from - hokey as it sounds - vice? They went out with a dollar and a scheme.
As states hit tough economic times, one by one they followed New Hampshire's 1972 lead and legalized lotteries. Like gamblers down on their luck, they were hoping for a quick fix.
When that fix didn't materialize, they chased their losses. Addicted to gambling revenues yet still starved for cash, they began to offer more and more lotteries, then scratchoff games, megamillions and, in some states, slots and casinos. Next thing you know - baby needs a new school system! - they're greenlighting the kind of gambling that only 30 years ago was illegal everywhere but Nevada.
And just like that, we became a nation of players. Granny goes to Atlantic City. Bobby plays Quick Draw before his burger. And where is the moral queasiness?
Same place as Bennett's shame: nowhere. Thanks to the ubiquity of betting and state-sponsored ads like the one I woke up to yesterday - "Give mom a lottery ticket for Mother's Day!" - gambling has become a normal part of life. It has lost its creepy connotations. It has even lost its two middle letters.
"They call it 'gaming' now, which is a focus-group, poll-driven name," says Scott Harshbarger, former head of Common Cause, the group that tracks how much money lobbyists spend on influencing government.
And - big surprise - the gambling/gaming lobby is spending double what it spent just five years ago to grease the way for gambling. In Washington, it actually spends as much as the health and electricity lobbies.
Here in New York, says state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens), the gambling lobby has gone gaga. In 2000 alone, it spent almost $4 million. Industry figures gave at least $350,000 to Gov. Pataki in campaign cash. Pataki later authorized six Indian reservation casinos - three in western New York and three in the Catskills.
Of course, Pataki doesn't say, "The gambling industry paid me off." He insists that gambling is a great economic engine. Not quite, says Jim Chappell, mayor of upstate Oneida. His city of 11,000 is next to the Turning Stone Casino. "In terms of people patronizing businesses after they've left the casino - a restaurant or bar - it doesn't happen," says Chappell. "They lose their money and go home."
Pataki calls this sound economic policy. Bennett calls it relaxing. I call it a travesty.
http://www.nydailynews.com/05-07-2003/front/story/81603p-74674c.html
Fact is, humans are weak and temptations are strong. Gambling is one of the strongest. Which is why Bennett, the author of every virtue best seller except the Bible, found himself losing $8 million yet claiming he did it to "relax." If it is truly relaxing to lose $8 million, it must feel like a day at the spa to go bankrupt.
While I wish Bennett well on his withdrawal (from gambling, that is, not the bank), in truth, he is living in the wrong country. Gambling is exploding in the U.S. - on riverboats, restaurants, reservations - and the gambling industry is only too happy to addict us all.
As Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association and former Republican national chairman, cheerfully notes: "There are only three states that don't have some legal form of gambling: Utah, Hawaii and Tennessee. And Tennessee will have a lottery before the year is over."
What happened to the anti-gambling laws of just a generation ago? Where are the lawmakers who were supposed to protect us from - hokey as it sounds - vice? They went out with a dollar and a scheme.
As states hit tough economic times, one by one they followed New Hampshire's 1972 lead and legalized lotteries. Like gamblers down on their luck, they were hoping for a quick fix.
When that fix didn't materialize, they chased their losses. Addicted to gambling revenues yet still starved for cash, they began to offer more and more lotteries, then scratchoff games, megamillions and, in some states, slots and casinos. Next thing you know - baby needs a new school system! - they're greenlighting the kind of gambling that only 30 years ago was illegal everywhere but Nevada.
And just like that, we became a nation of players. Granny goes to Atlantic City. Bobby plays Quick Draw before his burger. And where is the moral queasiness?
Same place as Bennett's shame: nowhere. Thanks to the ubiquity of betting and state-sponsored ads like the one I woke up to yesterday - "Give mom a lottery ticket for Mother's Day!" - gambling has become a normal part of life. It has lost its creepy connotations. It has even lost its two middle letters.
"They call it 'gaming' now, which is a focus-group, poll-driven name," says Scott Harshbarger, former head of Common Cause, the group that tracks how much money lobbyists spend on influencing government.
And - big surprise - the gambling/gaming lobby is spending double what it spent just five years ago to grease the way for gambling. In Washington, it actually spends as much as the health and electricity lobbies.
Here in New York, says state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens), the gambling lobby has gone gaga. In 2000 alone, it spent almost $4 million. Industry figures gave at least $350,000 to Gov. Pataki in campaign cash. Pataki later authorized six Indian reservation casinos - three in western New York and three in the Catskills.
Of course, Pataki doesn't say, "The gambling industry paid me off." He insists that gambling is a great economic engine. Not quite, says Jim Chappell, mayor of upstate Oneida. His city of 11,000 is next to the Turning Stone Casino. "In terms of people patronizing businesses after they've left the casino - a restaurant or bar - it doesn't happen," says Chappell. "They lose their money and go home."
Pataki calls this sound economic policy. Bennett calls it relaxing. I call it a travesty.
http://www.nydailynews.com/05-07-2003/front/story/81603p-74674c.html
