Place a Bet on Freedom

Place a Bet on Freedom

by Mark Luedtke

The Tax Foundation ranks Ohio 49th out of the 50 states in tax climate for businesses. The Pacific Research Institute ranks Ohio 43rd in economic freedom. The Wall Street Journal reports that jobs are flocking to low tax, economically free states, naturally. That explains our economic woes. Since Ohio's policies are driving jobs out of state, how will Ohio generate much needed revenue?

As Ohio voters rejected a proposal to legalize gambling last November, Pennsylvania residents voted to legalize casino gambling. One week later, in its first week, the Wilkes-Barre Casino in Pennsylvania brought in more than $39 million. Ohio needs revenue from income like that. But despite the success of gambling in neighboring states, Ohio voters have rejected legalized gambling 3 times since 1990.

Opponents of gambling in Ohio claim they care about jobs and addiction, but the success of gambling in neighboring states has exposed them as moralists who use government to force their personal values on everybody else. Opponents of gambling in Ohio claim that casino gambling and slot machines will cost Ohioans jobs, not create jobs. If that was true, Pennsylvania wouldn't have allowed gambling last November, and Indiana would shut down its casinos.

Ohioans already spend hundreds of millions of dollars gambling in other states. That wealth leaves Ohio instead of working in our economy and generating revenue for the state. According to a study by Deloitte Touch, if Ohio were to legalize casino gambling, $560 million that Ohioans currently spend gambling out of state would remain in Ohio. You only have to talk to a few neighbors who gamble out of state to realize the accuracy of this statement. The study further estimates that visitors from out of state will bring an additional $180 million into Ohio to gamble. That's a $740 million jolt to the Ohio economy that would spur growth, create jobs and generate new revenue for the state.

Opponents also project that 109,000 Ohioans will become addicted to gambling. No doubt some people will become addicted, but we know that our neighboring states have suffered no serious consequences from legalizing gambling. Whatever gambling addiction may have occurred in Indiana is successfully managed, as it would be in Ohio. And Ohioans are already gambling elsewhere, so we're already dealing with this issue while we're barred from experiencing any benefits.

Allowing gambling in Ohio would be a tremendous economic benefit with a manageable downside, but the plans set forth by the pro-gambling lobby so far aren't in Ohio's best interest. The 2006 plan would have created a constitutionally protected monopoly for race-tracks and 3 casinos. Creating a monopoly in the Ohio constitution would have been the worst form of government protected corporatism. We should allow gambling in Ohio, and we should insure the casinos face competition in a free market for the benefit of all Ohio citizens, not just a few race tracks.

But all this talk of allowing casino gambling is backwards to begin with. Free people can gamble where they want. Free people can open casinos where they want. The Ohio constitution doesn't enumerate a power for government to control gambling. Our government has no more business controlling casinos than it does controlling movie theaters or restaurants. But thanks to a tyranny of the majority, Ohio citizens are not free, and everybody pays the price.

Unconstitutional government control of gambling in Ohio led inevitably to the surreal spectacle surrounding the tic tac fruit machines, ostensibly a game of skill, not chance. Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is conducting a study to insure the tic tac fruit machines are games of at least 51% skill. Opponents claim he is giving into the gambling lobby. Now the legislature is considering the issue.

The whole situation is absurd, and it stems from government overstepping its bounds. If Ohio government obeyed our constitution, there would be no pro-gambling lobby to lobby the Attorney General or legislature. There would be no study of the tic tac fruit machines. There would be no votes to legalize gambling. Free people would incorporate gambling into businesses as they chose. The legislature has better things to do than find ways to restrict our freedom and prosperity, like lowering taxes and cutting spending, but obviously they disagree.

231 years ago, our Founding Fathers bet their lives on freedom. Americans have prospered ever since because of that sacrifice. Today, moralistic citizens use government to force their personal values on everybody else, be it banning smoking in privately owned businesses, banning contact and regulating hours of business at strip clubs, or banning casino gambling and slot machines. They always claim to have the good of others at heart, but they have no respect for the freedom that has cost so many American lives over the centuries.

Because of Ohio's assault on freedom, we're stuck in a downward spiral leading to higher taxes and even less economic freedom. Ohio's productive youth naturally leave the state for greater economic freedom and opportunity. We no longer value freedom, and therefore we have nobody to blame for this downward spiral but ourselves. Casino gambling could provide a much needed boost to our economy, but the only real solution to our economic woes is to become more economically free, not less, and to cut taxes, not raise them. Until we choose freedom, don't bet on Ohio's future.