"OK, I recently bought two Powerball lottery tickets (when the jackpot is $200 million or more, I think it's worth $2). But I am completely opposed to legalizing non-Indian casinos and pretending that blackjack is an essential part of economic development in New York.

Call me a hypocrite, but I think we'd be better off if the state got out of the gambling business entirely. Yes, for a lot of people, buying the occasional lottery ticket is harmless. But promoting and profiting from an addiction that ruins lives and wrecks families is immoral.

Even if you look at it simply in economic terms, I don't think there's any way that more casinos can be a boost to the economy — unless you just repeal arithmetic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week said he'd consider a proposal (probably requiring a constitutional amendment) to allow full-scale casinos outside Indian reservations. So in addition to the ubiquitous and ever-expanding lottery games, the three western New York Seneca Nation casinos, the Oneida-run Turning Stone casino near Syracuse, and eight race tracks with video slot machines, the state would be able to license more full service casinos offering table games such as poker, blackjack and roulette, which the race track casinos cannot by law offer right now."

Get the Story:
Mark Hare: Casino gambling won't grow the economy (The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 8/18)

Related Stories:
Commentary: Don't rush to expand gaming options in New York (8/15)
WAMC: Commercial casinos in New York still a few years away (8/12)
Editorial: Gaming creates an 'illusion' of economic development (8/11)
New York governor considers expansion of non-Indian gaming (8/10)