Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2009 > January > 14
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Casino gambling and Sunday liquor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here we go again. At the first downturn in the flow of revenues into the coffers of state and local government, the tax-sin crowd unveils a new gambling proposal that’s guaranteed to get the riches flowing again.
In this cycle, the developers who operate Underground Atlanta on a 50-year lease from the city are proposing a $450-million redevelopment of the trinkets-for-tourists enclave near Five Points in the old downtown business district. Business and the big law firms, for the most part, abandoned the area years ago, leaving it to Georgia State University students, state employees and the usual assortment of panhandlers and lounge-abouts who convene daily around the Five Points MARTA station.
It’s really not very appealing to conventioneers and tourists, though some do make their way to Underground. On most days when there’s no big attraction at Phipps Arena or at the Georgia World Congress Center that draws lots of tourist types, Underground is a pretty dead place.
The solution Underground operators propose is casino-type gambling with video lottery terminals. Conventional casinos are prohibited in Georgia, but the Constitutional amendment that opened the door to state-monopoly gambling does not expressly prohibit video casinos. With 5,000 terminals in a redeveloped Underground, gamblers would be separated from an estimated $600 million of their butter-and-egg money per year. Of that, the state’s cut would be half.
All together now in our “Tax Sin to Save the Children” chorus: Video lottery will rescue HOPE at a time when the state budget is suffering. Shouldn’t we also be touting horse racing now, too? Nobody’s yet proposed it as the solution to our financial ills during this downturn. It’s overdue.
Surely the Legislature will not allow itself to be sidetracked on questions like Sunday beer, wine and liquor sales — the pet legislative agenda item of convenience store operators — or video gambling in Underground or elsewhere. (I do wish for leaders who set public policy agendas and not merely shuffle paperwork into law for special interest pleaders.)
Dispose of both quickly, within days. And make it clear to gambling proponents that — in the case of video lottery — that the state draws the line somewhere on the exploitation of its vulnerable and, more seriously, of its addicts.
Underground needs to find another way to save itself.
