Seemingly bereft of urgency, the scrum over gambling expansion in New York State has yet to become a real fight. The Empire State’s Catholic bishops, while deeming gambling “a morally neutral act,” urged parishioners to “very carefully consider” the consequences of adding more casinos to the state’s gambling inventory. In a similarly hedge, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) promises he’s going to do something, someday to push the gambling initiative across the finish line … without actually doing anything. (Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy [D] has hit the hustings, touting the trickle-down economic benefits of expanded gambling.)
According to the New York Times, Cuomo expects to actually pull in gamblers from Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which sounds like the height of optimism to us. Better he should concentrate on getting New Yorkers through the doors. Nobody in those states is starved for gambling. By the same token, the bishops’ claim that “casinos in our neighboring states have been struggling for their very survival due to an oversaturated market” is hilariously off the mark, unless you count a few grind joints in Atlantic City. The rest of the bishops’ argument was standard anti-casino boilerplate.
The right wing has fired up its anti-casino artillery. The primary howitzer is the Institute for American Values‘ David Blankenhorn, who has lain down a heavy barrage of verbal shellfire. The institute’s Why Casinos Matter dissertation has been seized upon by opponents from Boston to Salt Lake City. “35 to 50 percent of today’s casino gambling revenue comes from problem and pathological gamblers,” reads one conveniently anonymous — and extremely dubious — statistic. Several of Blankenhorn’s arguments could be applied to any number of industries, which illustrates the danger of deploying large-bore ammunition.
Whether New Yorkers actually support casino expansion depends on how you frame the question. Neutrally worded, it could either way. Using the “push polling” language on the ballot, it’s a clear winner.
A tribal casino that would straddle the state line between Oklahoma and Kansas? Now that’s a horse of a different color!
