Mitch in Social Conservatives' Crosshairs on Gambling Expansion Legislation

As Jim notes over at Hoosier Access, the social conservatives have awoken to the possibility of yet another significant expansion of gambling here in Indiana (to say nothing of it being bad public policy for a variety of reasons that I have already blogged about).

Urging 80,000 plus people to contact the Governor and tell him to veto something is a lot, particularly when he needs those same folks come November if he wants to keep his job.

I don't agree entirely with the Indiana American Family Association's reasoning behind opposing the bill, but I agree with their objective.

Whether on moral, fiscal, or ethical grounds, HR 1153 is bad legislation and should be vetoed by Mitch Daniels.

They're even starting to pick up on it in the letter and opinion sections of the newspapers.

From the Indy Star:

More gambling, more pay but no relief for us

It seems something isn't right in the Indiana House. In 2007 lawmakers added more gambling to give property owners some tax relief, which we did not see. And they gave themselves a raise. All we got was higher taxes, which means less disposable income.

Now they have again brought more gambling to Indiana but can't come up with a reasonable solution to reducing or eliminating our property taxes. Where is the money going? It's time to clean house.

Dan Houk
Fishers

And the News & Tribune, down this way:

Gambling is so harmful it has to be outlawed.

That’s unless it is run by the state with the proceeds going to schools. It is not harmful if a county votes to allow it and it takes place on a boat bordering another state and the profits go to huge out-of-state corporations.

Actually, it doesn’t need to be on a boat or border, just be an engine of economic development in a depressed area of the state. It was never harmful if run by nonprofits with the proceeds going to charity.

Now that we think about it, it is only fair if taverns competing with those nonprofits get in on the action, too, but only taverns mind you. No telling what would happen if you allowed gambling somewhere the gamblers can’t also get sloshed. A lack of alcohol may impair their judgment.

Well, on tenth thought, it is pretty harmful in any form.

We must use a large chunk of state proceeds to pay for state-run programs to regulate and supervise the industry. We also have to have state programs to pay for gambling addiction services.

We also don’t want our young people to get the impression gambling is good for them (surely money spent advertising the lottery wouldn’t give that impression), so we need to spend money for after-school programs to teach them how harmful gambling, along with drugs and violence, really is.

If there has been any consistency in our elected leaders’ various stances on gambling it could only be an acknowledgment that gambling is destructive and profitable and the state and those making their living from the state sure want a cut.

You can’t reason with addicts, and the elected leaders of Indiana and the lobbyists who influence them have become addicted to gambling. They’re blind to how irrational it is to promote something, tell you it is bad, allow it, regulate it and then also treat the problems they created. We all pay to support their habit.

So how do we coordinate the intervention?

Signing this legislation could well be picking at a sort of political scab that the Governor would probably be wise not to open up again.