There is absolutely no place in this state for legalized casino gambling. Texans need to hold the line on this critical issue and ignore the siren song of easy money.
Although currently Texas only has one casino and one casino cruise boat, gambling interests are actively lobbying to turn Texas into a pro-gaming state. In May, the threat of a filibuster in the Texas Senate by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, killed a proposal to legalize video lottery terminals at racetracks. But now that the Texas Supreme Court has declared the state's school finance system unconstitutional - and particularly in light of the Legislature's inability to promulgate a viable funding plan - the pressure to tap into potentially lucrative sources of revenue such as gambling taxes will inevitably mount.
Texans have to remain firm. Casino gambling is not the answer to our state's financial problems. It is an abomination.
We should learn from a mistake made by others. I remember a cross-country trip home with a friend in 2002, stopping in Baton Rouge at midday. I was struck by the desolation afflicting the city: The many "Checks Casheds," liquor stores and riverboat casinos docked in the Mississippi right near the governor's mansion. For me, an unforgettable symbol of Baton Rouge is the image of a man in the parking lot of one of the casinos, nursing his beer in broad daylight.
The point is casino gambling has unacceptably high social costs. History and statistical proof establish that increased crime, drug and gambling addiction rates, prostitution, blight and alcoholism are its nefarious progeny.
Other than Louisiana (a long-suffering state that I do not intend to demean), which state or country that permits legalized gambling on a wide scale do Texans wish to imitate? Do we wish for Galveston to become a miniature Las Vegas, garish and overly commercialized? What about Havana in the years before the Cuban Revolution, with its unchecked hedonism and whoring, all disgustingly contrasted by the human misery in the countryside?
In ingenious fashion, the people of The Bahamas - where gambling in casinos on Nassau's famed Paradise Island is a major source of tourist income - have attempted to legislate away the negative societal impact of the gaming industry. The Bahamian Lotteries and Gaming Act prohibits Bahamian citizens from gambling in Bahamian casinos. The purpose of the law speaks volumes. It exists to preserve the nature of the casino industry as a source of tax revenue and employment, not a bankrupter of residents.
Yet Texas, unlike The Bahamas, does not have the option of picking and choosing among the positive and negative effects of legalized gambling. A Texas attempt at passing a Bahamian-style law would undoubtedly be impossible to enforce, hypocritical and unconstitutional.
If casino gambling is legalized in Texas, nothing will stop it from impoverishing Texans.
Nevertheless, undeterred casino executives loudly emphasize the many pragmatic reasons for legalization. One is that Texas already has racetracks and a lottery; hence, there is no point in banning slot and poker machines or full-fledged casinos. Another is that Texans are already gambling in neighboring states and in cyberspace (in apparent violation of the federal Wire Act), depriving the state coffers of much-needed revenue. Why play the vain game of legislating morality, which sacrifices money for principles?
Arguments like these acquire an especially convincing character in light of politicians' desire to avoid increasing property taxes.
They do not erase the fact that easy gambling money comes at the expense of working families. Gaming currently exacerbates our skyrocketing crisis of national indebtedness, which, according to statistics released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, is reflected in the present, record number of consumer bankruptcy filings. Already, an important cause of these bankruptcies is legislative irresponsibility - namely, the unwillingness of Congress to employ its constitutional Commerce Clause authority to enact a national usury law setting a reasonable maximum interest rate for credit card transactions. Texans cannot afford the consequences of more governmental cowardice.
Texans also cannot afford to legalize gambling today and change their minds tomorrow. Like an irreversible malignancy, casino gaming entrenches itself wherever it is permitted. Nevada and Louisiana are probably going to be legalized gambling states forever: their casino interests have become infinitely powerful and "captured" their state legislatures.
Let us eschew the path of "legalized" least resistance, even if it is lined with gold jackpots. Casino gambling is wrong for Texas. We must not stand for it.
Nickson is a third-year law student and executive editor of The Texas International Law Journal.
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