"The Carcieri administration is pumping out some industrial-strength hypocrisy these days about casino gambling. The governor ardently opposed a Narragansett Indian casino in West Warwick last year. But he seems to have had no problems over the years with helping to turn the former Lincoln Park into one of the world’s largest casinos — all without putting the matter to the vote of citizens.

Latest is his support for the introduction of blackjack in Lincoln’s Twin River — by means of a new electronic game. We think that gambling among real people using real cards is far less pathological than yet another form of obsessive-compulsive electronic betting. There’s more of a real social element.

The governor and his people contend that the virtual blackjack does not represent a true expansion of gambling, which would require a vote, since, it is argued, one electronic gambling machine is in essence the same as another.

Opponents of an Indian casino raised all sorts of arguments last year: about the social costs of hooking people on gambling; about draining money from the economy that could be put to more productive use; about the moral wrong of taking money from some people who really cannot afford to squander it.

In retrospect, it seems that some casino foes simply opposed the owners of a Narragansett Indian casino, rather than an expansion of gambling per se. "

Get the Story:
Editorial: We prefer real cards (The Providence Journal 9/4)
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