State Sen. John Carona, whose district covers most of the areas where we do magazines, announced yesterday that he wants Texans to vote on whether to allow casino gambling in the state.
This is shocking news, given Carona’s political credentials. In many ways, he makes Gov. Minority look like an Austin liberal, and casino gambling is rarely endorsed by conservative Republicans. Yet Carona wants to allow developers to build 12 casino-style resorts in the state. (And, if this isn’t confusing enough, that dovetails with the goal of Her Mayorness, who wants to turn Reunion Arena into a casino.)
Carona says this is about economic development, and he cites all sorts of numbers about how much Texans spend on gambling elsewhere. But casino gambling is lousy economic development, as anyone who has been to Atlantic City, Shreveport, or any of Mississippi’s casinos can testify. The community gets a casino district, an increase to the property tax rolls and not much else. Shreveport is still Shreveport, with all of its problems, despite the cash the casinos are supposed to be pumping into the local economy. (And I’m someone who likes to gamble and has been to most of the major casino resorts in the U.S.)
A factory is economic development. A corporate back office is economic development. A casino is minimum wage jobs and a product that sucks resources out of the community. Factories make things people can use. The only thing that casinos make is money for the people who run the company.
All of which means Carona has to have another agenda with this legislation, whether it’s to pre-empt a more liberal casino gambling bill or to help the state’s racetracks add video slot machines, one of their longtime goals and a less publicized piece of the proposed bill. Whatever the case, casino gambling is not going to solve any of Texas’ problems.
