The Legislative Black Caucus and the State Employees Association of North Carolina have stooped to new levels of irresponsibility in endorsing the re-legalization of video poker.
The caucus and association announced Tuesday that they were backing a bill by Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford, that would reverse the state's three-year ban on video poker and add taxes and fees to the gaming operations.
It is hard to imagine a more exploitative and abusive way to raise revenue. Both organizations said they were enchanted by Jones' unverified projection that video-poker fees and taxes could raise $500 million for the state. We suspect that to raise that much money, the state would need us all glued to video-poker machines eight hours a day.
It is important to understand what video poker is and how gambling operations have used the machines in the past.
Video poker is the crack cocaine of gambling. The electronic screen is mind-numbing and addictive. Players can sit for hours and feed the machines as they lose their family's grocery money for the week.
While video poker was legal, abuses were widespread. Prizes were supposed to be small, but machine operators cheated to draw more players. Corruption infected the industry here.
We must remember that federal prosecutors began their investigations of former House Speaker Jim Black, now a federal inmate, on suspicion he was getting illegal video-poker contributions.
One former North Carolina sheriff is in prison because of video-poker corruption, and South Carolina experienced a series of political corruption scandals stemming from the industry's presence there in the 1990s.
In supporting Jones' bill, SEANC leader Dana Cope said, "This is really a no-brainer for us and our members."
He's right. It is the kind of initiative an organization supports only if it doesn't use its brains first. It is hard to believe that honorable and hard-working state employees, especially those in law enforcement and social work, want SEANC to support an effort so harmful to families.
That the caucus supports this scourge is evidence that its members have lost touch with the best interests of their constituents.
North Carolina is short on money, but not so short that it must prostitute the moral underpinning of its citizenry by embracing a corrupt and exploitative industry.
There are honorable ways to raise the revenues needed for schools and other programs. We don't need a video-poker tax that preys on the gullible and the addicted.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement