Gambling bills: Proceed with extreme caution
Those Georgia Lottery dollars for HOPE scholarships and pre-K programs just don't go as far as they did in the heady and hearty days of the '90s. In Alabama, where then-Gov. Don Siegelman's effort to create a Georgia-style lottery (he featured Zell Miller as guest of honor at his inauguration) failed with the voters, cash-strapped lawmakers are rethinking not just a lottery, but other kinds of gambling as well.
What lawmakers in both states say they're seeing in the prospect of legal gaming is needed funding for the greater public good. What we're seeing is dollar signs in their eyes.
It's potentially the richest vein of "sin tax" they've ever tapped, a source of virtually "free" money and, consequently, political cover for politicians who will go to absurd and sometimes grossly irresponsible lengths (see: Alabama Legislature) to avoid being associated with taxes of any kind, regardless of fiscal realities and necessities.
In Georgia, Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, has proposed a bill that would license up to six casinos, provided they are spread across Georgia, are approved by local voters, and pay at least 12 percent of annual gross revenue to the state. (Do your own math on what kind of numbers that other 88 percent of casino receipts could represent.) In Alabama, the Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee just voted 6-2 in favor of a state referendum on a state lottery, and on legal casino gambling at four existing dog tracks.
A central argument in defense of lotteries -- i.e., that they don't involve the kind of high-tension noise-and-lights "action" to which compulsive gamblers are especially susceptible -- vanishes when it comes to casino gambling. That argument is sure to resurface in both states.
The most familiar argument in favor of legal gaming, of course, is that people in both states are gambling anyway, and all that money is leaving for Biloxi casinos (or, in Alabama's case, for border state lotteries). Alabama politicians pulled out a big gun for that one, bringing in former Auburn football coach Pat Dye to make the "keep the money at home" case. Dye also invoked the reality of Alabama's Indian casinos, which, because they operate under federal authority, have long had the legislature's gambling advocates fuming.
At least in Georgia the current law is clear: The lottery is legal by virtue of voter approval and constitutional amendment; casino and pari-mutuel gambling are not. In Alabama, where authorities have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in futile attempts to shut down gambling operations the legality of which nobody seems able to determine, the law apparently is that gambling is illegal except when it isn't.
As an alternative to taxing food -- as morally and fiscally repulsive an idea this year as it is every other year it is brought up (and in Alabama it's a long-established reality) -- legal gambling has an arguable appeal. But it will never be an acceptable substitute for the political courage and integrity to craft a fair tax and budget policy.
This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Gambling bills: Proceed with extreme caution."