Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:04 PM CDT
COLUMN: Thank God, the state has Big Tobacco to feed on
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial page editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
Riverboat gambling revenue dropped 17 percent since the statewide ban on smoking in public places went into effect. Of course, this rattled the casino industry, not as if it was surprised.
Many of those playing games of chance like to smoke. Some are addicted, some do it for nerves. There’s a host of reason.
If they can’t smoke, they stay away. It’s had a big effect on casino business.
It also rattled state government — a creature with an insatiable appetite and a real talent for emptying your wallet. Decline in gambling revenue means decline in government revenue.
In the wake of the precipitous slide in gambling revenue, casino operators began pushing 24-hour gambling. And, of course, this is a good thing. Around-the-clock gambling permits addicts to go broke quicker.
The legislators should do the same for taverns. We would generate both more alcoholics, and more revenue for the states.
Unfortunately, if the ranks of addicted gamblers and alcoholics increase, we’ll need more rehabilitation facilities. The damage to alcoholics’ livers will necessitate more transplants. That means more healthy people will have to die.
There are some who argue gambling should not be banned, lumping it among the other things they perceive to be vices. Smoking and drinking being the prime suspects.
Attempting to avoid the tag “hypocrite,” as long as I engage in any of these habits, I can hardly condemn another for his preferred sin-taxable pleasure. My detrimental affection is dark Irish beers.
But, I’ll drink about any beer. I don’t smoke, gamble, use drugs, or engage in one of the favorite pastimes of some politicians and celebrity preachers.
A core belief, hardened by age and increased disdain for authority, I think government as necessary evil, but it’s increasing eagerness to strip Americans of their freedoms and suppress individuality in the name of security and conformity is worrisome.
Government’s natural tendency toward authoritarianism and expansion (particularly of bureaucracy) must be constantly challenged. The lumbering beast has no sense of limitations. It will take what it can get.
It has a keen interest in sustaining legal vices that can be taxed. Illinois government is no worse nor better than most of its counterparts.
The governor and state legislature are in a quandary, having banned smoking in public places. They want money from casinos, but are unwilling to face the consequences of the ban on smoking.
Fewer gamblers through the doors will cost the state an estimated $100 million this year. Somehow, in the face of dollar signs, the arguments of the regimented, anti-smoking crusaders (crusaders are people who want to make you do what they want you to do), don’t sound so appealing.
True, the smoking ban created a healthier environment for patrons and casino employees, but $100 million extra would go a long way toward healing a sick state budget.
The contradictions lay down a question which will arise if the legislature exempt casinos from the statewide smoking ban. That being, “How can it justify smoking in casinos, yet people the right to do the dirty deed in all other public places?”
Money is the motive, the only motive. If the state’s taverns generated as much revenue for the state as gambling, bars would be open 24 hours a day, happy hours would be routine, and smokers could puff away. And nonsmokers be damned.
The legislature gets all tangled up in itself when it injects itself into things that are none of its business. Pressure from crusaders has a lot to do with laws like the smoking ban.
Smoking is bad for your health. As for second-hand smoke, I wonder if it’s anymore a health threat than the mold, dust and other critters festering in the heating and cooling ducts in buildings shut off from fresh air.
Smoking intensifies as a health risk in buildings having inadequate circulation. Remove the smoke significantly, reduce the problem.
Smoking is much like drinking. It can destroy your lungs and increase the odds of cancer.
Drinking too much alcohol damages the liver and boosts the chances of getting cancer, though research has shown the use of alcohol — particularly red wine — in moderation may be beneficial.
In a perfect world, no one would drink, smoke or gamble — at least, not until government came up with sin taxes. Likely, the legislature would promote the habits in the interest of the state coffer.
You wonder why Big Tobacco is still in business; while tobacco is legal? It’s really a no-brainer. Government and big-time law firms have found ways to generate money by forcing the tobacco industry to pay damages and fins for selling products individuals freely choose to use.
We don’t force the liquor industry to pay damages to alcoholics or the government for selling alcohol, which is a legal product. Drunks take to the road and kill people. We know that. What we don’t have hard evidence of is whether second-hand smoke is a serious health smoke, or anti-smoking propaganda.
It will be interesting to see how the state legislature and governor deal with the request smoking be allowed in casinos, but denied in other public places.
Allow it and rake in tens of millions of dollars in revenue, which can be used to help solve the budget problem state government created.
Thank God, the state’s got Big Tobacco to feed on. Too few dollars of which will be used to encourage smokers to quit.
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Goldenrod wrote on Apr 17, 2008 11:20 PM:
The boss is a little up in arms over the flip-flopping that goes on.
I think a change in the weather for the next couple of days might cool some of these blustery heads.
And for the record, H.A. opposed the war from the beginning before the beginning.
Feed on that smoke, my friend! "