Casinos

For weeks, now, I've been reading about all the so-called debate concerning the prospect of gambling casinos in Massachusetts. The latest article from this morning's paper pretty much sums up the anti-casino rationale. I can't help but notice, however, that it's an oddly vapid set of points. All the points made in the article appear to be counter-points to the pro-casino rationale, which is, itself, an oddly vapid set of points.

To call either side of this issue a "rationale" is truly a misnomer.

Underneath all the carefully thought out prognostications of what will happen if a casino is planted anywhere in Massachusetts is the simple fact that gambling has been illegal in this state for a very long time. Why? Because of fundamentalist religious strictures that go all the way back to the Pilgrims.

It's an emotional issue. Take the religion out of it, and it's a non-issue. Separate it from decades of being treated as an illegal vice, and it's a non-issue.

You'd get the same problem with dancing, had the religious fundies managed to succeed in making it illegal here. There would have been illegal dancing halls all over Massachusetts for years, run by criminal elements willing to take the risk in return for charging lots of money providing places for all those habitual dancers out there. We'd have people insisting that dance halls destroy the quality of life and attract a criminal element, just like we do now within the confines of all this point- counterpoint baloney regarding gambling.

The fact is that the same emotional and religious battles were fought over alcohol, almost a century ago. The religious fundies managed to get alcohol outlawed in 1919. Then what happened? It's just a part of our 20th century history now, ...those who were willing to take the risk ended up charging lots of money providing places for all those habitual drinkers out there. Everybody wanted a piece of that action and a lot of millionaires were made, including (according to fondly promulgated legends) the father of our most famous state senator.

Now, the Patrick administration wants the state of Massachusetts to get a piece of the action with casinos.

Frankly, the whole thing stinks like a rotting corpse lying out in the middle of main street.

Everybody knows, but will hardly focus on, the simple fact that if you remove the illegal stigma from gambling and establish a set of regulations for it being conducted as a perfectly legal activity, then it will hardly have any more impact on the state than our currently established laws and business activities concerned with alcohol... or dancing, for that matter. It would just be another business activity, subject to the same market influences as everything else.

The mindset behind positioning gambling up into some "huge profit" scenario is only based in its illegal status, and somehow keeping it as rarely available as possible. Nobody makes big money unless it remains a relatively rare commodity. And the only way to keep it "hot" is to fuel these emotional fires and keep the controversy going.

Gambling is as American as the New York Stock Exchange, the commodities market, and all the other risk-taking ventures you would ever care to list. Our language is permeated fully with the gambling mindset. Phrases like "I'll bet you..." and "Wanna bet?" roll off our tongues just as easily as "I'll drink to that" and "What have you been smoking?"...all arising out of activities that, past or present, were declared illegal. Churches and other non-profit groups run casino nights and bingo games to raise money. Politicians gamble that they will win elections, and gamble against chance that what they say in public won't backfire.

Even the devoutly religious will take such high stakes risks on the highway that injury, maiming, and even death can easily result if the gamble is lost... while sporting a "God is my Co-Pilot" bumper sticker.

No-one can ever say that they have lived their lives on this planet without gambling at some point, sooner or later, and losing. Taking any risk, however slight, is a gamble. Committing to any venture, however safe, is a gamble. It's in our blood, and it's part of what makes us tick.

Without this innate predisposition for risk taking, we'd all still be living in caves.