Lining the Pockets of Billionaires, Politicians and Special Inter

Lining the Pockets of Billionaires, Politicians and Special Interests

by Mark Luedtke

 

Here we go again. In what's become a yearly Ohio tradition, a couple of billionaires are pressuring Ohioans to give them a constitutionally protected monopoly on gambling businesses in Ohio. The details change every year, but the theme remains the same: Uncle Billionaire wants your gambling money, and he doesn't want anybody else to have any.

One of the great failures of the American political system is that special interests can come back year after year trying to take freedom and money from the American people, no matter how many times they lose, until they finally win. Freedom has to win every battle. Tyranny only has to win one. The current health care debate is another perfect example.

Ohio Issue 3 would create four casinos in Ohio, one each in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. These casinos would have a constitutionally protected monopoly on casino games. The amendment specifically bans all lotteries except the government lottery. Charities could have bingo games. Because of the way the amendment is written, all other gambling games, including charity games, would be implicitly banned. Supporters say this is a mistake. I find that hard to believe.

Billionaires aren't dumb. Because of what they learn every time they lose, they improve their sales technique the next time. They figure out how to buy off the special interests with our money to get enough votes to win their monopoly. Last year the Fraternal Order of Police fought against the gambling monopoly. This year the billionaires won the support of the FOP by specifically earmarking a portion of the gambling taxes to police training. Buying support from special interests is just that easy. Between the FOP support and the bad economy, this incarnation of the gambling monopoly amendment, which is being sold as a jobs amendment, is more likely to pass than ever.

But the entire process starts with a fraud. The text on the ballot is not the text of the amendment. The amendment is six pages of detailed legislation, and the devil is in the details. The entire US Constitution isn't much longer than six pages. Most Ohioans will never see the actual amendment, only the sanitized summary on the ballot.

But why should a couple of billionaires be the only people to enjoy the profits of gambling? If the new owners of the Arcade want to open up a casino inside, why should the state stop them? If Pat Flanagan wants to put a couple of slot machines in his bar, why should the state stop him?

Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia all allow casino gambling. Kentucky recently passed a law allowing it, though no casinos have been built yet. The ads tell us that Ohioans spend $1 billion gambling in surrounding states each year. My research indicates that's in the ballpark. Of course Ohioans should capitalize on that business. But we shouldn't follow the government protected monopoly model of those states. Every adult in Ohio should be free to share in the profits from running gambling games.

I propose an alternative amendment to allow gambling in Ohio. “Because the people of Ohio are free, and because free people can gamble if and when they choose, the people of Ohio may gamble or run gambling games as each sees fit.” That sure beats a constitutionally protected monopoly for billionaires.

This whole scam is just a way to transfer wealth from Ohioans to billionaires, politicians and special interests. I'm not a gambler, so I've never gambled in a neighboring state, but I've been told that while the casinos flourish, the surrounding towns do not. Of course. The casinos build everything inside to keep gamblers inside. Games. Bars. Restaurants. Hotels. Entertainment for non-gambling people who came with gamblers. All inside the casino so very little money leaks out into surrounding businesses. That's just smart business. That's what would happen in Ohio. Gamblers in Dayton would forgo a night out in Dayton and instead hit the casino in Cincinnati or Columbus. The money would flow out of Dayton into the casino owners' pockets.

Proponents point to the taxes on the casinos as a benefit. Even before regular taxes, 33 percent of the gross revenue would go to casino taxes. 51 percent of that would be distributed to county and city governments based on population. How's that good for us? You'd have to be the most naive person in the world to think government is going to lower our taxes because of the new revenue stream. The people of Ohio won't see a dime of this money. It will just be more revenue for local politicians to buy votes and pervert our economy, making us all poorer.

Opponents of the bill complain the casinos aren't paying enough tax. Our 7.5 percent income tax is destroying our state, but they think an additional 33 percent off the top is too little. Those people apparently have no concept of property rights or how an economy works.

And this amendment isn't just a first step toward embracing greater freedom, the freedom to gamble, in Ohio. Once these billionaires have our money in their pockets, they'll use it to maintain their monopoly. The local politicians all over the state who get our money rained on them from the casino tax will use their power and our money to protect that monopoly and the revenue stream it generates. All the recipients of that vote buying money will fight to maintain that monopoly so they can keep our money flowing into their hands.

The billionaires, the politicians and the special interests win. The people lose. That's how it always works when government interferes in our economy.

Freedom, not government protected monopolies, is the solution to our economic problems. If we really want to create jobs, we should abolish state and local income taxes (and the federal income tax for that matter), cut the government spending they fund, extract government from our economy and make gambling free for every Ohioan to enjoy and profit from.