Ohio casino would hurt working poor

By STEPHEN RAY FLORA

Opening a casino in Ohio would cause far more economic, social, family and personal hardship for Ohians than could be offset by any half baked casino-county tax sharing scheme. Gambling researchers call gambling “a tax on stupidity” and Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee called legal gambling “a tax on poor people.” Regardless of how it is portrayed, research clearly shows that gambling takes a disproportionate amount of resources from the working poor and socially marginalized citizens, including isolated senior citizens. These resources then go to a rich few; the casino owners and shareholders. This is a reverse Robin Hood effect where money is scammed from the poor and given to the rich.

Instead of protecting those in more difficult life circumstances (the very ones who government should be protecting), when government supports and promotes gambling it is exploiting those most needing protection and education. If the claims of the casino promoters are true that $200 million in taxes will be shared by Ohio counties, then billions will be taken from less educated and marginalized citizens who are the patrons that casinos depend on for profit. These billions will be scammed from working class people who believe gambling is one of their few chances to get ahead.

Research on the effects of new casinos clearly shows that when a casino first comes to a location tax revenue may increase, however additional business and jobs are generally not created. As the years progress, any increased revenue is more than offset by increases in personal bankruptcies, foreclosures and suicides. Once casinos saturate a wider geographical area, each additional casino brings in less, but the local costs increase as local problem gamblers constitute an ever increasing portion of casino patrons. Other research findings show that legalizing gambling results in numerous costs in individuals, families, financial institutions, and local communities that outweigh any revenue benefits for local governments.

Pitiful stories

For every story of winning big in a casino there are millions of pitiful stories both told and shamefully hidden of misled but honest folk who have not only had all their money taken by gambling schemes, but have also lost their spouse’s, their children’s, and sometimes their employer’s money to the casino. An Ohio casino would destroy the lives of thousands of Ohioans.

Casinos do pay a few highly educated people lots of money to figure out how to extract more money from patrons and how to keep losers playing despite mounting losses and eventual financial ruin. Gambling games are programmed to produce many small but trivial wins and the appearance of multiple “near wins” in pseudo-random sequences that are actually carefully designed to keep losers playing. The patron is falsely led to believe that the “big win” is just another dollar away.

The end result is that patrons leave the casino angry, depressed, broke and sometimes suicidal. But losers also leave with delusions of “almost winning.” These delusions and false memories pull the sad gambler back into the casino the next time they find themselves isolated, lonely, or feeling worthless with any money they can get their hands on.

The bottom line is that casinos are bad news for Ohio. The rates of suicide in areas with casinos are up to three times greater than areas without casinos. Children of gamblers are more likely to be abused than children of non-gamblers. Gamblers develop more drug abuse and other psychological problems than non-gamblers.

Capitalists should note that the net economic impact of gambling is negative. The last U.S. research review finds that per person real economic benefit of gambling is $46 but the social cost per person is $289. That is losing proposition. Passing Issue 6 would put a cancer in the heart of Ohio.

X Stephen Ray Flora, Ph.D., is a psychology professor at Youngstown State University and a course instructor for “Psychology of Gambling.”