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Inescapable Cost Of Casinos Goes Beyond Money May 9, 2003

To listen to the debates on gambling reignited by Mayor Richard Daley's stated desire to open a casino in Chicago, you'd think it was simply a big land-use issue like airport development, Soldier Field renovation or the proposed Northwest Side Home Depot.

Benefits. Costs. Try to weigh out all the options and make a decision that results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. But there's something different about gambling, isn't there? Something weightier and more essential. Something that supporters insist doesn't exist and that not even mainstream opponents like to talk about because it sounds so dour and stiff-necked.

Proponents of this and other proposed expansions of gambling point to increases in tax revenues, jobs and related economic development. "Unfortunately, the lack of quality research and the controversy surrounding this industry rarely enable citizens and policymakers to truly determine the net impact of gambling in their communities, or, in some cases, their backyards."

This was the conclusion of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a panel appointed by Congress in 1997 that spent two years trying to get a handle on what it called "an ephemeral subject." The data one might seek to calculate the impact "is spotty at best," its final report said, "and usually inadequate for an informed discussion, let alone decision."

From baccarat to basketball pools to bingo nights, games of chance are utterly mainstream in our culture and in most cases utterly harmless diversions for individual players, some of whom, of course, come out ahead. Yet the lure of gambling--the large payoff for a minimal investment--is antithetical to the connection between effort and reward that we know to be associated not only with strong, successful individuals, but also with strong, successful societies.

The high-minded part of us says shortcuts are for the lazy and disreputable, a form of cheating, even. The everyday part of us buys lottery tickets when the jackpot swells. Because as much as it's human nature to value effort and reward, it's also human nature to want instant gratification. This tension is at the heart of what theologians call sin, said Gerald Forshey of La Grange, a retired Methodist minister and ethics professor who has spoken out against gambling.

We intuitively know that a casino isn't just another big business, like a huge hardware store only with chaser lights and a free buffet; why we know that a video poker machine in a tavern isn't just another electronic amusement; why we know that the question of whether to salt our state with new slot machines is far more significant than the question of whether to build new roads or cut curbs.

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