Opinion: Gaming not the cause of California's economic woes

Monday, January 16, 2012  

"So, Internet gambling must be resisted because of its "harm to California's most vulnerable citizens"? Nonsense.

Drive around Sacramento, see the empty storefronts on J Street, in the Downtown Plaza or Arden Fair mall; the holes in the ground where buildings were supposed to rise on Capitol Mall, K Street and in Natomas. Did gambling do that? Go farther to Elk Grove, Roseville, Stockton, up and down the state, in fact, and look at whole neighborhoods turned into foreclosure ghost towns. Which casino did that?

Or consider the workings of California's state government, where a projected deficit of "only" $5 billion, with an unemployment rate of "only" 11 percent, are trumpeted as great improvements, statesmanship at work. Were these caused by "Wicked Gambling's" siren call?"

Get the Story:
Martin Owens Jr.: We're getting fleeced – but not by gambling (The Sacramento Bee 1/15)