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Jan

9

The gambling harems convene in Ohio


Less than two hours ago, this article about the gambles being waged for getting the okay to gamble in Ohio showed up in my inbox and it says:

Strickland’s spokesman, Keith Dailey, said the willingness of the governor’s office to listen doesn’t imply an endorsement. Still, Dailey said, the governor would be remiss to ignore Penn National at a time when state revenue is deteriorating.

“The governor continues to believe that expanded gambling would be bad for Ohio,” Dailey said. Strickland himself had said much the same thing a day earlier.

It would be haughty of me to think that my post, The Seduction of Governor Ted Strickland (which is about how Strickland’s stance on support for legalizing casinos in Ohio may be softening as a result of the increasingly hard economic conditions in Ohio) had anything to do with this latest article from James Nash and the Columbus Dispatch, but I do expect that the reason it was sent to me is precisely because of that post from this morning.

What galls me the most is how many millions of dollars that could have been spent on real economic development have been wasted by these entities just to bring casinos to Ohio.  I mean, does that demonstrate the failure or the success of capitalism?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:13 pm January 9th, 2009 in Business, Economy, Gambling, Ohio, Politics, Social Issues, Ted Strickland 

Comments

10 Responses to “The gambling harems convene in Ohio”

  1. 1 Ryan on January 10th, 2009 7:46 am

    When will this 35% minority of Ohioans and Ohio (D) politicians wake up and realize that income from gambling, while purportedly beneficial to the state, creates mediocre, WalMart-esque jobs, acts as an enabling agent to people who heretofore did not have gambling problems, and creates far more problems than the one it seeks to resolve?

    If they seek to resolve education funding, they need to fix (read: repair) the funding mechanisms behind the Ohio lottery. Redundancies in state government, while I’m sure are few, do need to be cut for the benefit of the state as a whole.

    In short: Casinos suck. Gambling sucks. I’m right. Ted’s going to be wrong.

  2. 2 Jeff Hess on January 10th, 2009 8:40 am

    Shalom Jill,

    Governor Ted Strickland is not a leader, he’s a follower; and he’s being lead by the nose.

    If it were the case that Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky were thriving, or at least not struggling so hard as Ohio, as we enter this depression, then Gov. Strickland might have a case.

    But they’re not and he doesn’t.

    The casino slime balls are willing to spend millions because they will make tens or hundreds of millions in return on the backs of Ohioans who really don’t have the money to lose.

    When your citizens consider hitting the lottery or the big payoff on a slot machine to be their only hope for retirement, then your society is broken and your leaders have failed.

    Strickland is now officially a whore and it’s time to legalize prostitution and really start raking in the dough.

    B’shalom,

    Jeff

  3. 3 Daniel Jack Williamson on January 10th, 2009 10:18 am

    Casinos aren’t at all an embodiment of capitalism. Capitalism has been endangered by years of pay-to-play politics (there are both Dems and Reps that are guilty of engaging in such). There’s no level playing field, no free marketplace for true capitalism to thrive. Instead, lobbyists and PAC’s are committed to having advantages carved out for them in the marketplace, and politicians short-sightedly cave in to them to get campaign contributions. The politicians then claim that they are pro-business, pro-jobs by carving out these advantages for these well-connected entities, but they’ve altered the business landscape in doing so, creating inefficiencies in the marketplace, sabotaging capitalism. Consumers should be the ones who pick winners and losers in the marketplace, not legislatures. Instead, consumers get screwed. Health insurance is a prime example of an industry without a level playing field, that receives all of its advantages through legislation, while consumers barely have any impact in that industry’s marketplace. I could name other industries, too. Utilities. Banks. Alcohol wholesalers and distributors. Legal firms. Towing companies. Securities brokerages. Accounting firms. Charter schools. Ethanol plants. Nursing homes.

    Lobbyists and PAC’s aren’t interested in pushing for a level playing field. They aren’t interested in legislatures taking neutral positions. Therefore, there’s no campaign donations offered to legislators for refraining from intervening in the marketplace. There’s only incentives to legislators for arranging marketplace interventions. Lobbyists and PAC’s seek advantages, and that’s what they’re willing to pay for.

    Capitalism has been sabotaged.

    A term applied to the prevailing political economy that might be more appropriate is “corporatism.” It is corporatism that is failing us, not capitalism. The casino industry is yet another manifestation of corporatism.

    I’m ready to throw corporatism on the junkpile of history. I’m not yet ready to give up on capitalism.

  4. 4 Jeff Hess on January 10th, 2009 11:03 am

    Shalom Jack,

    Careful, you’re about to become a Naderite.

    And I think you would be in good company.

    Frankly, I’ve decided that if President-elect Barack Hussein Obama doesn’t break this logjam of Corporatism, I’ll never vote for a Democratic presidential candidate again.

    I don’t think that either Raplph Nader or Ron Paul have the solution, but I think both are willing to ask the uncomfortable questions; and we need much more of that.

    B’shalom,

    Jeff

  5. 5 ryan on January 11th, 2009 9:43 am

    Casinos are for people too lazy to scratch the instant tickets.

    Every convenience store and supermarket is a casino.

    It is a slightly different psychological kick.

    perhaps what we need is some kind of parlours or saloons for people to bring their scratcher tickets and have at it.

  6. 6 dean on January 12th, 2009 12:04 pm

    Jeff,

    sorry to hear you think government is the answer,

    Although I doubt you just fell off the turnip truck, it is clear that every time the government tries to fix something, it breaks worse than before, and usually to the benefit of some of those who claim to have fixed it, at the expense of the masses (yes, you and I are among them).

    It isn’t corporatism that blew it, it was congress and their mandate of “affordable housing” translation: loans for all, whether you deserve credit or not, because we must continue to build, build, build!!!

    propping up failing businesses with phantom funds that the government creates out of thin air is a recipe for greater losses in the future…
    If a business can’t compete on a level playing field, perhaps it should fail…
    we haven’t had much success w/ planes, or trains, and now we’re doing automobiles.

    sounds like a bad movie, and Hollywood makes enough of them, but no longer, the money is not around to produce $100million Duds, the
    era of the indie films has begun…

    But I digress, get your head on straight, before BHO and the Dems cost us all the future of a great nation.

  7. 7 Jeff Hess on January 12th, 2009 12:37 pm

    Shalom Dean,

    No, I don’t think government is the answer — the past eight years are clearly proof of that — but I do think that laws should be written to benefit the vast majority of citizens and not individual companies or market segments.

    Government makes basic decisions, the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System is a good case in point, that change fundamental economic realities and have unintended consequences.

    Corporations owe no allegiance to anyone or anything other than their shareholders. The benefits of doing business in the United States should come with costs that directly and clearly measurable benefit the nation first.

    B’shalom,

    Jeff

    p.s. and in what nightmare scenario do you possibly imagine that the next four years could be more damaging to the economy and world standing of the united states than the past past eight?

  8. 8 Jeff Hess on January 12th, 2009 12:59 pm

    Shalom Ryan,

    And I’ve opposed the Ohio lottery from the beginning.

    B’shalom,

    Jeff

  9. 9 Mark on January 12th, 2009 1:14 pm

    In my opinion Race track casinoes are a good way too go.In my experiance,I have worked on the race track since I graduated high school,the gambelers will go, be it scractch offs at the local store or cross state lines too gamble.I live around Youngstown and most of my friends I know travel too West Virgina and take Ohio money out of state.Gov. Strickland,a great gov,has aposed this since his term began.After starting Keno in Ohio I think he realised his hypocracie.Gov Strickand also realises thatalso gives money too the hurting agricultual economy.

  10. 10 ryan on January 12th, 2009 7:02 pm

    it was the banks and lenders and wall street that mandated loans for all. they were racing each other to make the loans. promotions for loans came through all media. the mail, television. the yahoo.com portal. Email. Flyers on telephone poles. The banks, the lenders, the mortgage brokers, the realtors, the the big developers all got their cut well before the home-buyer foreclosed.

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