A Jan. 13 Sunday News’s Words to Remember editorial “We gamble and lose, Pennsylvania’s foray into slots plays like an episode ripped from a TV crime show,” deplores the infiltration of gambling in Pennsylvania by organized crime.
It goes on to say: “We have opposed slots from the beginning because of their potential to corrupt, both individually and systemically, and because state-sanctioned gambling as a short-term fix for long-term tax issues — in this case the reviled school property tax — is just bad public policy.”
These are words to remember. Because the day may come when casino gambling will be urged to save the publicly-owned Convention Center and the Marriott Hotel in which the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. is an equal partner.
At which time the Sunday News may rationalize “If all other cities of our size have slots, why shouldn’t Lancaster?” And it may be hard to argue with that position in order to salvage the otherwise doomed project.
There has long been an undercurrent that casino gambling is to be introduced in the Penn Square Partner’s controlled common area as an attraction for the convention center project. NewsLanc has no evidence that is true. Only time will tell.
