repubgazette2-13-07gamblingbriberycoldhardcash

West Virginia welcome signs should say:
Almost Heaven
The Mountain State
Open for Business
Wild & Wonderful

Pro-gambling legislation passed a key House of Delegates committee on Monday, and a final vote on the issue will be held by the end of the week.

The bill would allow voters in the four counties with racetracks to add table games to the mix, but also raises the bar on what residents would have to do to get rid of the games.

No matter, really. Once the games become established, they will never go away -- at least not until the gambling industry squeezes every last dime out of the state and decides on its own to close up shop and move to greener pastures.

The Charleston Gazette's Phil Kabler, in a Monday column, reported, "...backers of the (table games) bill got a major shot in the arm with the distribution of a county-by-county and city-by-city breakdown of projected revenues."

Kabler reported that 20 percent of the state’s share of table game revenues would be split among counties with racetracks, cities within racetrack counties, not to mention all other counties and all other cities.

As Kabler understated it, "...the numbers may have helped sway a vote or two."

No kidding. Kanawha County’s share after the first full year of table games operation would be $275,956, while municipalities in the county would make out, too, including $143,684 to Charleston, $36,015 to South Charleston, $31,111 to St. Albans, $21,931 to Dunbar, all the way down to $4,419 for Chesapeake, $4,554 for Marmet and $3,002 for Clendenin.

Wrote Kabler, "At a time when cash-strapped towns and cities are struggling to provide fire and emergency services, even providing a small piece of the pie to cities and counties makes table games an easier sale to voters. On top of that, the projected $10 million a year in license fees that would go to Senior Services to provide in-home care services for the elderly could make the legislation a lot more palatable to many.""

There's nothing like cold, hard cash to get public officials to hold their noses and support something. It makes you wonder just what legislators, mayors and many regular citizens wouldn't support if there were enough greenbacks flashed in front of them.

Call it legalized bribery or rationalized assault. What was former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams' notorious comment about rape? "As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”

The general public seems resigned to reclining and enjoying it as its Legislature foists a gambling assault upon it, justifying it because it will provide dough to cash-strapped governments and services. At the end of the day, it appears that creating a new generation of state-sponsored addicts is just fine, as long as we share the wealth.