From time to time, people have urged me to run for elective office — presumably because of my, uh, great wisdom and deep experience in covering local government.
I’ve never been tempted because, for one thing, I know I wouldn’t last long in elective office. If I’d been a member of the Missouri General Assembly back in the 1980s, I would have voted against the state lottery. And if I’d been a legislator in the early 1990s, I would have voted against legalizing casino gambling, which was euphemistically framed as “riverboat gaming.”
I would have voted against the lottery and casino gambling because they dig disproportionately deeper into the pockets of lower-income people than the wealthy and because casino gambling contributes to serious social problems. (According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, more than 103,000 Missourians have a gambling disorder.)
Which brings me to the debate that took place this week in the General Assembly over expanded slots-style gambling and the prospect of legalized sports wagering.
Rudi Keller reported on it Saturday in the Missouri Independent, and his third paragraph said everything you need to know about greed and slime…
“Wednesday began with the Senate galleries jammed with dozens of lobbyists representing casino operators, professional sports teams and video gaming companies.”
He might as well have said the galleries were jammed with lobbyists representing filthy-rich people aiming to suck blood from low-income people and further enrich themselves.
It’s neither the gamblers nor average Missourians whom the lobbyists and their employers are looking out for; it’s the wealthy.
Ironically, as it turned out, the greedy could not agree on how to divide the spoils. Nothing got passed Wednesday and might not before the legislative session ends on May 13.
Here’s how Keller described the fracture among those chasing the newest potential pot of easy money…
Casinos don’t like the provisions allowing the Missouri Lottery to place video gambling machines at fraternal clubs, veterans halls and truck stops. Video lottery advocates don’t want the casinos to get a new source of revenue if they aren’t included. And the companies that have placed thousands of unregulated machines…would prefer that nothing pass at all because it might make it tougher for them to do business.
Going unspoken in the debate was whether any of this was in the best interests of the people who patronize Elks clubs, American Legion halls, Love’s Travel Shops and the gas stations and bars where thousands of unregulated machines have been installed.
And now into that rancid stew sports wagering probably will be stirred.
Those who would benefit the most, and almost exclusively, are the casino operators and the owners of the state’s major professional sports teams. The casinos and the teams would get cuts of the betting action, as would the state, which would levy a 10 percent tax on the profits.
And who would lose? Why, the bettors.
My late father, an accounting professor, explained it to me a long time ago when I was single and spending a majority of my vacation days at various racetracks. He said that with the track taking out 10 percent or more of the pooled bets, the bettors would ultimately come out behind.
It’s no different with sports wagering; it’s the “house” that wins and the bettors who lose, if they keep playing long enough.
Another element in the gambling picture is the economic competition between Missouri and Kansas.
In Kansas, the Senate and House have approved legalized sports betting, and a bill is awaiting the signature of Gov. Laura Kelly, who is expected to sign it. In his story, Rudi Keller said that if Kansas got sports wagering and Missouri didn’t, “the odds of the Chiefs jumping the state line to a new stadium will grow shorter” because the vast majority of the state’s take would be funneled into a special fund to be used to lure major sports teams.
I say fine. Let Kansas have sports wagering and let the Chiefs move over to I-435 and I-70 into a $1 billion stadium built partly with sports-wagering proceeds. Jackson County residents have been bled long enough. From his home in Dallas and his suite on the “gold level,” Clark Hunt is perfectly happy to pit Kansas against Jackson County. And how do you think he’d vote on sports wagering?
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim I totally agree. I was on a Downtown St. Louis committee that endorsed riverboat gambling back in the day. I was the lone no vote. Everything I feared would happen did happen including the voters believing gambling revenue would fully fund education and new taxes would not be needed. Here we are, widely expanded gambling and last in teacher pay.
I remember those days, too, Tom, especially when John Connelly, owner of the Admiral steamboat, was running around Missouri — fronted by a couple of p.r. hacks whose names I don’t recall — ginning up support for the bill that put casino gambling to a statewide vote. I remember chasing and catching up with him when he and his entourage left the mayor’s office on the 29th floor and headed down a back staircase in an effort to avoid me.
The framers of that initial bill were so careless that they failed to ban convicted felons from working at casinos. As a result, the proposal went down to defeat, and the sponsors had to come back with a cleaned-up version, which voters approved.
I also remember the people from Hilton paying off Elbert Anderson, head of the Kansas City Port Authority, to approve their proposal for a casino in that big hole down at the foot of Grand Avenue. The payoff was successful — except Anderson later went to prison — but Hilton realized its location was inhospitable and they moved it down river, just past the I-35 bridge. It later became the Isle of Capri, then Casino KC and last year Bally’s.
If you are not going to vote for something because you think government will not do a good job collecting the taxes and dispersing them…. Well, you probably won’t ever vote for anything.
I often have problems with those that think it is there job to protect people from themselves. Government should most definitely provide safe roads, good schools, clean water, etc…. But it becomes a very slippery slope when you decide people are not capable of making their own decisions and choices. Where does it stop? Should you ban alcohol (again)? What about foods that are not healthy? Obesity is one of the top killers in the world. How about cigarettes? Freedom does come with a price. Gambling can be fun and entertaining, plus it can also provide revenue for important programs and services. Yes, there can also be problems for some that take it to the extreme. That can also be said for almost anything.
Good points, David. It is a conundrum. I just see more negatives than positives. I would prefer governments rely on user taxes (like the gas tax), property taxes (where those with the biggest houses and most property pay a larger share) and income and wealth taxes. In an ideal world, it would be pretty easy to set the levels fairly, but the rich and the special interests have too much power over the process, and thus we get undo reliance on sales taxes, the lottery and casino gambling, all of which hose the low- and middle-income people.
Definitely agree that those with less means (sounds better than poor) pay a disproportionate amount of gambling revenue. But… it is their choice.
A lot of countries have a steep value-added tax (VAT). For example, EU member countries must have a VAT of at least 15%. Yet progressives routinely insist that low- and middle-income people are much better off in those countries. If that’s the case, then our sales taxes should be higher, not lower.
Another argument for sales taxes is that everyone pays. Not so with federal income taxes, where many people are not only exempt but receive money. Before the pandemic, that was about 44%: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/57percent-of-us-households-paid-no-federal-income-tax-in-2021-study.html
If you want low-income people to waste less money on gambling, then increase sales taxes so they have less of it to spend at the casino, on lottery tix, etc.