Delegate Patrick Lane (R-32 District) graciously wrote an article while I was away early February. Thanks to a glitch in my blogging software, the article and all comments were deleted. It’s too good to simply let it vaporize into the internet, so I am republishing it.
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By Delegate Patrick Lane
Much is being made this session about table games. Republicans have led the fight over the last three years to kill the table games bill but this year is different. They are still leading the charge, but House leadership apparently is not afraid to run the bill and let it die. With this in mind, I am please to be given this opportunity to explain why table games is bad for West Virginia families by separating the myths from the facts.
Myth 1: We already have gambling in WV so let’s add table games
Fact: Article 6 Section 36 of the WV Constitution only allows lotteries that are owned operated, regulated and controlled by the State. A lottery has been defined in case law as any scheme where a consideration is given for a prize or nothing and the outcome is predominantly determined by chance. A person might be a great blackjack or poker player, but you cannot argue that winning is determined by the hand you are dealt. Because games such as roulette and craps are purely chance, table games are determined predominantly by chance and are lotteries.
With table games being a lottery, it must be owned, operated, regulated, and controlled by the State. Regulated and controlled is easy enough, but how does the state own and operate the table games? Video lottery was legally found to be owned and operated by the state because the state owns the logic or magic boards and the software program that is the heart of the machines. Operation was met because the machines are connected to a central computer that allows the state to monitor and shut down at any time. So the question becomes how does the state own and operate table games? Will we buy all the tables? Will we hire the dealers and make them state employees? There simply is no logistical way that the state can own and operate table games.
Without meeting the test, the games are unconstitutional and require a vote of the people on a constitutional amendment.
Myth 2: Table games will create good paying jobs
Fact: The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average gaming dealer makes only $16,040 per year and those in the top 10% of wage earners only make around $22,000 per year. In fact, retail cashiers at Wal-Mart and the mall make an average of $17,300 per year. Moreover, the recently complete Marshall study shows that gambling jobs actually cause other jobs in the area to dry up and disappear causing a net loss of jobs or a break even at best.
Myth 3: The state needs table games money because neighboring states are starting their slots and taking our gambling money
Fact: Our state Legislature has been used as a test market for neighboring states. The gambling industry saw WV struggling with budget issues and said, “Hey we’ll give you free money if you give us gambling.” And instead of making the changes to revitalize our economy, the Legislature took the lazy way out and agreed.
Think about it, if you could sell your product to 1.8 million people or 14.5 million people, which one would you sell it to?
Because the legislature in Pennsylvania is already considering a bill to legalize table games, by the gambling industry’s own admission, table games will only give WV 4 - 10 years of money because they are pushing it in border states.
By passing table games we are really creating a bigger hole in the budget in a few years than we have to deal with now.
Myth 4: Table games are free money so let’s take it while we can
Fact: Table games and gambling in general are not free money by any stretch of the imagination. Divorce doubles in an area where casinos operate. Crime goes up roughly 10%. Bankruptcies skyrocket. While table games will generate revenue, the Marshall study confirms that for every $1 gambling generates it costs the state $1.90. It is actually a net loss of income to have gambling in a community.
This is an important issue for WV. Gambling will harm West Virginia because it is unconstitutional, the jobs are low paying and take away other jobs, any revenue is only temporary but the problems are long term. And when social costs are considered, gambling is a net loss.
Most parents hope their children grow up with a bright future to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc. But apparently the highest and best hope the West Virginia Legislature has for our children is that they grow up to be blackjack dealers. Call your Senators and Delegates and tell them that your child is more than blackjack dealer.
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Comments
I find it interesting that Patrick Lane’s analysis of “the four myths” of table games did not include anything about FREEDOM.
In fact, NEVER have I seen the word “freedom” mentioned in any discussion of table games (or hardly any other subject in political discussions in WV.)
I joined the Republican Party many years ago because it seemed to me that the GOP actually believed the words in the Declaration of Independence. That the GOP actually took to heart the idea that government was supposed to preserve our freedoms against the constant attempts to control our individual actions right down to what we eat, what we smoke, what we drink, what we play, what and how we ride, and what we think. (That’s what I perceived that the Dems are always up to.
Apparently I was wrong. The WVGOP seems to be just as controlling as the Dems.)
Table games fall into the “what we play” category. WV, the NANNY STATE, allows us to play The Lottery, Bingo, the horses, the dogs, cards and craps (at home,) and a few other things. Why not table games? Let’s be consistent.
Let’s get to the root of the “problem.” Some people think that gambling is bad. And they’re correct. Gambling IS bad for some people. Gambling is also good FOR SOME OTHER PEOPLE.
Those who wish to ban gambling for everyone appear to me to be religious extremists (the fundamentalists?) who want to impose their morality on everyone else. [This is called the “one size fits all” syndrome.]
Their view is strictly a religious viewpoint. They also don’t seem to understand the concept of “SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.”
They do not seem to take into account the possibility that some people enjoy gambling AND CAN EASILY AFFORD TO LOSE WHEN THEY GAMBLE! Some people exercise SELF-CONTROL and either quit while they’re ahead or quit and cut their losses.
Is the GOP for freedom or not? Or is the GOP just for certain kinds of freedom that are approved by the narrow-minded?
How about the loss of freedom to those people of self-control when the legislature legislates a ban on all or any part of gambling?
IF the GOP wants to control those gamblers who cannot afford to lose, THEN LICENSE THEM! Make them prove that they can afford to lose; stamps their licenses with a LIMIT STAMP that tells the casino owner how much they are allowed each time they enter. Perhaps you can also make them into a “Punch-ticket” so that they are allowed to gamble only a certain number of times per year.
When a gambler enters a casino (or other gambling establishment) make him show his gambling license and the operator punches it. When the card is all punched out, the gambler can’t gamble anymore that year.
[SIDE BENEFIT: Of course, if the GOP ever gets into power in WV then furnishing “under-the-table” gambling licenses would be a good source of revenue for some of our corrupt politicians. (Admit it, we have a few.)]
Another way to look at things: perhaps WVirginians are not as downright stupid and lacking in self-control as the Bible-bangers think they are.
Perhaps the owners and operators of gambling establishments are not as downright crooked and evil as the Bible-bangers think they are.
Perhaps the GOP should stand up for freedom. Perhaps the GOP should live and let live. Let the Bible-bangers set up “Rehab” clinics for those who lose their paychecks to the casinos. How can mankind learn anything unless allowed to make mistakes and correct them?
Sometimes I’m ashamed to call myself a member of the GOP because in WV, our GOP seems to merely echo the Democrats. WVGOP seems to go along with the NANNY-STATE mentality of the Democrats. In fact, maybe a lot of WVGOP ARE DEMOCRATS IN ELEPHANT SUITS.
Of course you lose votes when you advocate freedom in a NANNY STATE
Grunt, I hate to tell you this but you don’t hold a Republican mindset; you’re a Libertarian.
That aside, Delegate Lane never once mentioned the so-called “religious extremist” position that gambling is immoral (which it is, by the way). Neither has any other Republican legislator whom I have spoken with.
I won’t rehash Delegate Lane’s article, but you may want to reread the reasons for opposing it. Sure, we could let anyone do whatever they want, but it comes at a high cost to the state and its citizens.
Plus there is the constitutional issue. You may have a bias against decent Christians living according to the Bible, but you cannot go against West Virginia’s constitution.
If freedom to do anything at any cost is so important, let’s get rid of the speed limit and every other government limitation that keeps us from fully expressing our will.
William Stewart:
That’s strange, all these years, I thought that the Republican mindset WAS libertarian, for individual freedom. Maybe I am a hyphenated Republican, a libertarian-Republican.
Maybe by inference, you are espousing the authoritarian-Republican mindset, anti-individual freedom.
I was led into this quagmire by the likes of Wm F Buckley, Jr who advocates the libertarian-Republican mindset, the YAF mindset. Are you saying that their mindset is NOT a Republican mindset?
If Republicans are NOT for individual freedom, then what is the difference, pray tell, between Republicans and Democrats?
Please elaborate.
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