Jump to full article: Detroit (MI) News, 2008-05-01
Author: Froma Harrop
Intro: Loath to tax the citizenry based on income, many states have increasingly turned to cigarette smokers and gamblers for revenues. Gamblers are often smokers, and both groups tend to be of modest or low income. . . .
And when states ban smoking in all entertainment venues but the casino, they end up securing an especially dependable revenue stream. As public policy goes, this means of taxation is highly unattractive. After all, they are funneling their smoker population into another highly taxed and unhealthy activity. As an added anti-social bonus, they discriminate against other businesses in search of the same entertainment dollar.
But the casino industry knows that its profits have become oh-so-important to the gambling-addicted states and localities. We're partners now.
That mentality explains how Donald Trump could stand up a few days ago and with a straight face call on 11 casinos to unite in a lawsuit against Atlantic City. . . .
A similar conversation is going on in Connecticut. . . .
Perhaps someone would like to tote up how many jobs would be created -- at the pubs, fish restaurants and pool halls in New London and elsewhere in the region -- if the smokers who had left them for the casinos suddenly started returning. Or a general accounting of how many jobs elsewhere in the economy have vanished because of casino competition.
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