Republican candidate for Governor of Alabama Tim James on GAMBLING--using real numbers and real facts. Thank you, Tim!
NEWSLETTER
January 8, 2010
Casino Gambling: Not the Answer to Alabama’s State Fiscal Crisis
In state after state, legislatures are faced with varying degrees of fiscal disarray. California must come up with a staggering $34 billion to fill a budget hole created by years of fiscal irresponsibility. Here in Alabama, state fiscal experts recently reported our budget hole will be $676 million with next year predicted to hold even worse deficit numbers.
This sets up Alabama and many other states as vulnerable to casino gambling interests with the sales pitch that our budget problems would somehow go away if their operations were legalized.
Here in Alabama, there’s a debate raging as to whether our casino gambling known as “charity bingo” is either legal or illegal.
Untold millions of dollars raked in at these so-called charity bingo parlors are not taxed by the State of Alabama. As a result, there is no funding to compensate communities for higher crime rates, treatment for problem gambling and other social ills attributable to gambling.
According to a national research study on the social and economic costs of casinos on communities, gambling puts a $40 billion drag on Americans. (Source: “Casinos, Crime & Community Costs,” Sept. 2004) The same research shows that 8% of the crime in every county with a casino is attributable to gambling, and that there is a $75 per adult social cost for this increase in crime.
If you multiply that $75 cost factor by the 3.5 million adults in Alabama, you get $262.5 million. That’s roughly what casino gambling lobbyists tell us the State of Alabama will receive in additional tax revenue if their industry is legalized.
Casino gambling isn’t the answer to our state’s fiscal woes, based on that one statistic alone. Factor in the higher rates of crime, divorce and personal bankruptcy, it’s clear that casino gambling is a bad bet for the people of Alabama.
Playing charity bingo, an Alabama type of slot machine, is rampant in our state. Governor Bob Riley a year ago declared war on charity bingo, calling it illegal. Since then, the courts have sided with the Governor in a series of decisions. Let’s hope the courts resolve this matter, once and for all, as pro-gambling interests and their allies will continue tying up legislative progress on a host of critical issues this year and in years to come.
“Let the people of Alabama decide!” is the rallying cry of the casino forces. That sounds well and good, but what we have seen to date from this crowd is a “heads we win, tails you lose” situation that protects the turf for certain operators while keeping competitors out. Even if you were inclined to vote for casino gambling, that arrangement is nothing but a fool’s bargain.
Just as sure as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, pro-gambling lobbyists will be in Montgomery working on their legislative agenda. They will also contribute vast sums to politicians running for public office this election.
I am not their candidate, nor am I accepting their financial support.
So far in this campaign, my fellow gubernatorial candidates have taken their positions on gambling. Most are against casinos, or at least lead us to believe they are. My position is very simple: I oppose gambling in all forms. Gambling has never proven itself to be the economic development stimulus its proponents claim, and its social costs are high.
The best result for the people of Alabama is to put this issue behind us, once and for all, and move forward by putting Alabama’s economy back on track, improving the quality of our public schools, and finally making government accountable to the taxpayers. Casino gambling isn’t the answer to any of them.
Sincerely,
TIM JAMES
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