"Gov. Eliot Spitzer has announced he wants a sprawling Indian casino in the Catskills. In order to get it, he plans to go to Washington to lobby the Secretary of the Interior for final approval.

Mr. Spitzer has his reasons. There is the promise of economic development for people desperate for jobs. There is the reward of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state that do not have to come from higher taxes. And finally, there is the newer rationalization that if New Yorkers are going to gamble anyway, they might as well lose their money in New York, not New Jersey or Connecticut.

But as any gambler knows, as dazzling as things look in the casino business, the odds are never stacked in your favor. Mr. Spitzer should realize that these shorter-term rewards will not turn out to be a good deal for New Yorkers in the long run. The costs in crime and social problems are barely figured in. For that reason alone, the secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, who as governor of Idaho opposed the kind of land deal this casino will require, should stick to his guns now that he is in Washington."

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Editorial :A Bad Hand for the Catskills (The New York Times 2/25)
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