Incoherent nanny state-ism reared its head again in Annapolis this past month. Obsessed with promoting wealth inequality in Maryland and squeezing gambling addicts or other targeted, desperate people for every red cent, Annapolis politicians received a report called the “Maryland Online Casino Study”.
A briefing of the Maryland online casino study presented Thursday in front of the House Ways and Means Committee brought up some of the challenges that lie ahead on the road to legalization.
A major focus of the discussion was the study’s contention that iGaming could decrease Maryland’s brick-and-mortar casino revenues by 10%.
Oh no! Internet casinos and gaming could cannibalize the already-existing gambling grift for MD’s casino operators. Say it isn’t so! Those poor casino operators and the rapacious MD state tax collectors feeding off these gamblers.
MoCo delegate Jheanelle Wilkins (Democrat), who we recently profiled here for co-sponsoring an anti-1st amendment bill in Annapolis (she wants social media companies to spy on individual posters), was really concerned:
I’m concerned that other than the 10% reduction in revenue, there’s not a concrete awareness in your study of the other impacts when we have a serious reduction in the people who are entering casinos,” said Del. Jheanelle Wilkins. “And I also wonder, with the fact that the casinos would probably still see an overall increase in revenue, how much incentive there is to continue with infrastructure building.
The delegate is concerned more people won’t frequent the ol’ casinos in Baltimore city or Prince George’s County, you see, if online gaming is available. Would she support a casino being built in MoCo? Probably not. MoCo Democrats seem to like to outsource the state’s vice establishments to other places, but crow about the tax revenue being brought in by squeezing addicts elsewhere (and in MoCo). But her comment on “continuing with infrastructure building” sure is curious. Is she proposing that Maryland needs ever more brick and mortar gambling establishments? Expanded cathedrals to the gaming swindle? Is that what she believes will create prosperity? Certainly, it won’t assist in her “equality” efforts.
This predatory gambling promotion / concern by a proven big-government nanny state delegate from MoCo comes against a worsening back-drop, nationally, for young people (mainly young men) addicted to gambling. CBS’s 60 Minutes just this past weekend profiled the issue and talked to several public health professors:
There are distinct signs of trouble. According to a Siena College poll, which we can report for the first time now, of the young men wagering online, nearly half feel they’re betting more than they should… in the five years since New Jersey legalized online sports gambling, calls to the state’s problem gambling helpline [have] nearly tripled. The largest caller demographic? 25-34.
Harry Levant [a former gambling addicted lawyer]: This is a public health emergency happening. And we’re not talking about it yet.
Worse than not talking about it, MoCo / Maryland politicians seem to be openly celebrating it. Pot, booze, predatory gambling and lottery… as long as it kicks up some tax revenue to Annapolis, what do they care about lives crushed, finances ruined?
But don’t you dare release some balloons for a private party or question election results online!
More to come.
