GAMBLING

Gambling is little more than a tax on the mathematically challenged. The odds of winning are skewed against the player and yet the draw is tremendous. The psychological need to be considered "lucky" is a part of the human existence, and as such, perpetuates this losing bet.

This is not a tirade against gambling. If a person wants to lose his or her shirt playing poker, the ponies, or pitching pennies, far be it from me to tell that person not to do so. I believe in individualism, and as such, I believe that we all have the right to be stupid as long as the gambler understands he or she must pay the consequences of this stupidity.

I grew up in a family that enjoyed gambling. I spent many a day and night at various race tracks. My father enjoyed the races. We never missed a meal, and I have to admit that he gambled responsibly. I never saw him lose more than the share he had allotted to lose for the night. He wasn't a compulsive gambler; he just gambled.

As with all things, too much of anything leads to ruin. Gambling is no different. Done responsibly, it is a pastime. Done irresponsibly, it is a disaster. Moderation and self responsibility are the key, no more and no less.

I saw the gambling spectrum very young. Having visited most pari-mutual tracks in New England before I was seven, I could recognize those who were social and tell them apart from those who had a problem. My uncle, a house painter, would have me, as a kid, run into the pool hall to drop off a hot meal to his workers who had lost a paycheck at the horses and was spending the night sleeping on a pool table. Even though they had lost their last buck, I could see the glimmer in their eyes when they talked about the bet that almost won.

For me, I rarely gamble. If I do gamble, I bet at random, and have little or no desire to win. I do this because I fear that if I chose to gamble on something lacking randomness in its selection, I think my ego would think that I could “beat” the house or the odds. Cards for fun, certainly; cards for money, never. But that is my personal distinction and not one that I would care to impose on the world.

Now that you understand my personal approach to gambling, I can discuss what I see as the gambling situation in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is, sorrowfully, hooked on gambling. To solve its budget problems for the last two decades, it has grown reliant on gaming. Instead of doing the heavy lifting to create viable employment opportunities in the state, the government has sat back and let good jobs be supplanted by gambling and tourism.

Gaming revenue is not a bad thing, that is, it is not a bad thing if you don’t rely on it. If the state had utilized its gaming money as pin money instead of income, we would be doing quite well. Gambling revenues used for one time expenditures, especially capital expenditures, is a logical and sound financial approach.

Instead, Rhode Island has been hooked on gaming and now needs the money to survive day to day. This reliance cannot be good for Rhode Island’s future. With higher levels of gaming competition, the decline in disposable income, and the general weariness with this form of entertainment, Rhode Island may be poised to pay a high interest rate as a result of its reliance on this fast money.

Consider this, Rhode Island actually gets a really high percentage from its in-state gaming parlors. Imagine if it didn’t get such a good deal.

In the last round of gambling initiatives, the proponents shot themselves in the foot by teaming with the Legislature to promote a casino. The greedy hands of legislators soured the deal for many, even those who like myself, have no real aversion to allowing gaming and would have voted for a casino if it had been cleanly presented.

The fact of the matter is that a well designed, well regulated, and fiscally sound approach to gaming is not automatically a bad thing for Rhode Island.

In the future I hope to review the gambling situation in Rhode Island. I also wish to consider the need of Rhode Island to seek such revenues and the proper way to use them if they come about. I further wish to look at how a gaming effort may be too little, too late -- in short, looking at how the legislature’s inept attempts at promoting gaming have hurt more than helped Rhode Island successfully harness a revenue stream.