State-Sponsored Gambling: For the Government to Win, Citizens Must Lose

This winter, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a federal law that prohibits states beyond Nevada from sanctioning commercialized gambling on sporting events. Oral arguments in Christie v. NCAA will take place on December 4th. Nebraska Family Alliance along with sister organization North Carolina Family Policy Council joined a brief submitted in support of the federal law. John Rustin, President of NC Family joins NFA on the radio to discuss how state-sponsored gambling changes the relationship between the government and the governed.

State-Sponsored Gambling: For the Government to Win, Citizens Must Lose

“The government is supposed to look out for the best of the citizens, but what state-sponsored gambling does is put the state in the position of being a gambling bookie, or a huckster.” Rustin explains this changes the government’s goal from looking out for it’s citizens’ best interests, to trying to “maximize new revenues to the state.” In essence, for the government to win, it’s citizens must lose.

A common argument in support of gambling is that taxes on gambled dollars can be used for positive societal institutions such as education. However, Rustin points out what often happens is new taxes coming in from gambling are used to replace existing funds, not increase funding. In North Carolina, once lottery dollars came into the state and were pointed towards education, the state simply used state funds that would have been spent on education on other expenses.

Not only are promises of increased funding for education empty, casinos and other forms of expanded gambling “cannibalize” the economy. In fact, for every $1 of gambling revenue, the state must spend $3 on increased social services.

Economist and Professor Richard Florida put it this way: “Virtually every serious study that has ever been done of the economic impacts of casinos shows that their costs far exceed their benefits.”

Nebraska voters, as recently as Fall 2016, have repeatedly rejected casinos and video gambling. Irregardless, those who advocate for expanding state-sponsored gambling have a new frontier: fantasy sports gambling. As Nate Grasz, NFA Policy Director, said in a recent article, “Fantasy sports gambling is simply an online casino under the guise of fantasy football.”

Related: What Draft Kings and FanDuel Don’t Want You to Know

A good society depends on honesty, mutual trust, self-discipline and concern for others. You can’t build prosperity on the foundation of personal debt and gambling addiction. A just government does not finance its activities by preying on vulnerable people.