Gambling with the government: PA Casinos

It's time to put my economics degree to use and do what every good econimist excels at. Using logic and reason and theories to create some bullshit arguments.

PA is getting ready to develop and open slot machine-only casinos. Government revenue is the incentive. It is a sad moment when government is funded by the hopes and desperations of others. Most people who play slots aren't financially secure. The revenue coming in from slots will fund programs aimed at helping those who play slots, it's laughable that this is accepted as legitimate financing. What better way to guarantee dependency than to be in the government and create problems for which government is then paid to find the solution to?

The situation in PA is unique. PA has the second oldest population (Read: slot users) in the country (FL is # 1). 30 buses per day, from Scranton alone, leave for Atlantic City every morning and return in the evening. These buses cost $20 round trip, and not only are they cheap, but the passengers are given $20 in coins. Essentially there is no cost to the passenger to go to Atlantic City. It sounds like a great deal, but after one hour, when you've blown through your $20 in coins, you still have 8 hours left to gamble. I'm not going to pretend to know the figures on how much people spend after their first $20. But if you assume that it costs $20 per head round trip to get to AC (which is probably on the cheap side), then Casinos are paying $8 million per year to bring people from Scranton to Atlantic City and back. ($20 per head, 45 heads per bus, 30 busses per day, approx 300 days per year). You know the Casinos are doing better than just breaking even, but I won't approximate that number either. I will bet that it is really big. The PA legislature faced a dilemma. Gambling is not morally popular, but New Jersey is taking alot of money from us. On that point alone, Pennsylvania stands to gain some economic growth.

But how much?
Developers/Casino Owners will do well. Construction workers will be employed. After that, it is lower level jobs that will be held by people who can't afford to live anywhere near these casinos. If Casinos are granted the right to serve alcohol 24-7, bars and nightclubs built in the casinos will do well. The long term jobs coming into the state (bartenders, waitstaff, security, casino staff) won't necessarily be the kind that can support people who want to make a living here, nor do they help the tax base much. Is it worth it to have more desperate people closer to home? Is it good to have slots within a short drive of thousands of 18 year olds throughout the state? Is it good that Casinos will be a shorter drive than AC for people getting their paychecks on Friday? just food for thought. I never did mention that sometimes people do actually win money when they gamble. Maybe the state will win with the gamble they are making on casinos.

That's not the whole point though, because where does the government stop? If it's ok to open casinos for tax revenue, why not legalize prostitution? Laugh and say it will never happen. Go ahead. 30 years from now, todays kids will be our lawmakers. The same kids who are being raised on MTV and in a more sexually liberated society. I'm not opposed to legalized prostitution (I'm also not a parent yet). I'm opposed to the government aligning itself with these things for the sake of revenue and I'm opposed to legislature that creates problems that will need to be solved through other means.