LEHIGH VALLEY EXPRESS-TIMES Editorial: …As casino competition intensifies — more than two dozen have opened on the East Coast since 2004, with another 12 planned — reality is hitting home elsewhere, too. In Delaware, the legislature has approved back-to-back bailouts of the state’s casinos after they threatened layoffs. Indian tribes have been seeking federal grants as their gambling revenue has dried up. In New Jersey, programs for the elderly and the disabled funded by casino cash are now imperiled. And in impoverished East St. Louis, which relies on a casino for nearly half its budget, weak gambling receipts have contributed to cuts to police and fire departments.
Like any other business, casinos can bring in tax revenue. But governments tend to vastly overestimate their potential. (For one thing, it’s an appealing way to avoid harder questions about taxes and spending.) A recent study found that, on average, casinos actually have a “small but negative net impact” on state revenue. That’s likely to worsen as competition increases — and states should recognize how precarious such revenue is.
The second dubious assumption is that new casinos can reliably revitalize moribund communities. When New Jersey authorized gambling in Atlantic City in 1976, it was intended to give a struggling seaside resort new life. Decades later, Atlantic City’s unemployment rate is 11.8 percent, 30 percent of its citizens live in poverty, and its violent-crime rate is through the roof… (more)
