Ohio legislators looking for money in seven wrong places
Ohio's legislators are no different than the people who will be pushing nickels and quarters into slot machines at the state's race tracks if state law is changed -- they're all looking for easy money.
Facing a multibillion dollar deficit, a legislature that is dominated by conservative Republicans to whom gambling was once anathema, is poised to embrace video slot machines as if the machines were prodigal sons returning from faraway lands. "Come to Ohio," the lawmakers plead, "forsake West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan and Ontario."
If there is any logic to the Republicans' plan it lies in the fact that many Ohioans now go to neighboring states and Niagara Falls, Canada, to gamble. To the extent that Ohioans would stop going to those places and go, instead, to an Ohio race track to feed the slots, Ohio will recapture some of that lost money.
But in a state with a gross product approaching $400 billion, the amount being lost is not significant. And bear in mind that the day Ohio's race tracks turned on their slot machines would not be the day that Ohioans stopped going other places to gamble. The state's seven race tracks would primarily be additional places to gamble, not replacements.
The proponents of gambling tend to take a libertarian view: If some people like to gamble, they should be free to do so. If some people are prone to problem gambling, that's their problem and doesn't provide sufficient reason to deprive responsible gamblers of the opportunity to enjoy themselves.
That's a fair argument, but the General Assembly isn't being driven by libertarian motives to bring slot machines to Ohio. It is purely interested in increasing state revenue during an economic slump without resorting to traditional tax increases.
The big number
The estimate cited by proponents is that the machines would net the state $500 million a year.
Before the proposal becomes law, that broad estimate should be backed up by specific projections.
There should also be a candid discussion of the hidden costs of bringing slot machines to the state. These machines are described by gambling opponents as the crack cocaine of wagering.
If the state knows how many people will be pouring their money into video slot machines, what can it tell us about the number of people who would be in danger of becoming gambling addicts? How do those numbers translate into jobs lost, bankruptcies filed, family homes lost, families destroyed? What are the social costs?
Of that $500 million "profit," how much of it is being diverted from the purchase of life's necessities, and how much of it is discretionary income that would have otherwise been spent in Ohio restaurants and theaters? State and local governments would have realized part of that money anyway, through sales and entertainment taxes.
The people are only being given one number, $500 million, which would be a lot of money if it were falling on Ohio like manna from heaven. But it is not. Every dollar is coming from someplace, and it is fair to ask who is losing that which the state (and race track owners) will gain.