Why Does Ed Really Want To Bring Casinos to Pennsylvania? Will It Help the State or Cause More Problems?

The great Ed Rendell believes that we are all blind to his true intentions and ambitions to bring revenue to the state by allowing companies to build casinos in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I think we should look closely so we can see through the smoke screen and see what’s really happening.

Rendell is building himself a network of people that will owe him favors down the road in his political career. The favors will be political and financial.

Political favors are worth their weight in gold. The folks that back Rendell in Harrisburg in the House and the Senate will get key cabinet positions (if he wins the election) when Rendell decides to run for president down the road. Yes you heard me right, president! The gossip going around the Democratic Party is that he is networking to get the nomination within the next eight years.

If the casinos fail and don’t generate the money that they were supposed to then he will have people to blame it on in the normal and consistent fashion that Liberals do. He will say that it was these peoples fault because he just came up with the idea and they were to improve upon it.

If the casinos do well, then of course he will take the credit for that, and will introduce a new “Las Vegas” in the Commonwealth. The current Pa casinos are only allowed to have slots, no table games yet like Blackjack or Craps. He will argue the fact that we need to become more like Las Vegas because this will be the savior of Pa. He will spout off about jobs and tourism (which is true), but what about the negatives that will come with this venture?

The downsides of casinos are they bring the darker side of the gambling world. The darker side being more organized crime, prostitution, deterioration of families, and more self generated poverty. These all cause a serious decay to the family and serious attention should be paid to them. Rendell and his cronies are not looking at the consequences of bringing the casinos to the state.

The first time that I headed to Las Vegas, I was so excited about being able to maybe make a few dollars from a few dollars. I was greeted by a sight that I will never forget when I got there. I saw a family that was huddled in the corner of the Bus Station that I arrived at crying and upset. I overheard the wife telling the husband that she was debating divorcing him because he had spent all of their money at the Craps Table and they had no money to pay bills that they had coming up. I understood as the conversation went on that this was their family vacation. It was sad to see a family that was torn up because of the loss of money.

The rest of the time that I was there, I was a student rather than a gambler. I watched the people to see if there were more of the same types of things happening that I saw in the bus station. I noticed that people gambling are loaded up on the feel good items like Cigarettes, Hard Liquor, and Beer. Some drank themselves to where they had to be removed by security, and some were gambling like crazy with no reality of what they were losing. I will say that others were there in the same condition, but were doing just fine. It was scary to think that I could have been one of those people drinking my day away and blowing every last dime that I had to make a few bucks (I most likely would lose.)

What I described are some of the horrors that I saw while I was there. I don’t want this for Pennsylvania. I understand there is a potential for the state to make a lot of money, but why not invite industry here that will help people with the potentiality to create more jobs, than have a business here that will have a limited number of jobs and will hurt people. This is another attempt by Eddy to throw money at a problem rather than fixing it.

Allowing free alcohol was a nice touch for the casinos. They will let people drink to the point where they are really loose and about drunk so they will spend their money more freely than they would if they were sober. There is the argument that they have the choice of whether to drink or not, but the reality is that the drinks are free. People don’t understand that the free drinks are designed to make people freer with their money; they think the alcohol is free because they are a guest gambling there. Thinking this they will generally drink to where they are tipsy because hey it’s free.

Another nice touch that will help the casino is they will be able to use the free booze as a tax write-off so they will benefit, and the state will benefit because they will have to buy all of their hard liquor from them. Rendell is looking at this as a win-win situation. He will say that this combined with the revenues from the tax that we will impose on them this will help the state.

The fine casino owners are trying to build a casino in Gettysburg National Park. Again they come under the flag that it will help the state with tourism thus creating revenues. I am a firm believer that we should preserve our heritage for future generations; this is not following those principles. I think that building a casino here is disrespectful to our ancestors that fought there and to our future generations that need to go there and see that.

Another issue that the gambling poses is the issue with expanded government programs that will combat gambling addiction. Why should the burden of rehabilitating people fall on the shoulders of the taxpayers? This should fall under peoples health insurance benefits. These people created their addiction, so why should we pay? The answer is that we shouldn’t have to pay, they should.

Eddy and his cronies look at theses casinos and say they will generate additional money for Pennsylvania, lets say for the sake of example that we do generate money from these casinos, but what will it cost us for the programs they say are needed for gamblers. They must foresee problems coming with people if they already need to set up hotlines and clinics for these addicted gamblers. How many millions of dollars will that cost us in the long run, along with whatever else they need for support of such programs.

In conclusion to the thoughts presented here: We do have a problem in the state with creating more revenue, but I think that goes along with a greater need for Fiscal Responsibility. I think that we should reform our tax system so that business will want to come here and bring industry. I don’t think that casinos will save the state or bring things that we really want. It is sad that Eddy would so this to our state just so he can get backers for when he runs for president. The people of Pennsylvania should remember this when and if he does decides to run. Casinos are a bad idea for the state.


"No Civilization has ever taxed itself into prosperity."

~Rush Limbaugh