I was at the rally against Casino’s today and have to say I was impressed by how well it was organized and conducted. It was at the same spot where the first transit rally was held a few years ago. Not that long after the first transit rally we brought 4000 people from across the state. Given what I saw today, the anti-casino rally in Harrisburg will easily exceed 4000.
This movement has been a long time coming. But as I will explain in this and some future posts, I am glad it is here.
I opposed the casinos when they were first proposed. Gambling is a regressive form of taxation. It leads to all sorts of social ills including addiction, prostitution, and organized crime. It has no place anywhere near a Philadelphia neighborhood but there is nowhere to put gambling in Philadelphia that is not near a neighborhood.
And, to be honest, I am whatever the equivalent of a prude is when it comes to gambling. I got that way from two experiences.
My family traveled across the country when I was 12 and stopped in Las Vegas for a day. We had lunch at a diner. At the time, booths in diners had slot machines where one would find a juke box in other parts of the country. I put my nickel in the slot machine and won $20 in nickels. My father gathered up the money and, in perhaps his finest act of parenting, proceeded to put every single nickel we won back in the machine until there was one left. That experience cured me of gambling. I have been in Las Vegas twice more, once just at the airport to change planes. Each time I put a quarter in a slot machine. I didn’t win on the first try, so that was enough for me.
I was only in Las Vegas one other time, when I flew in to go to a job interview at Deep Springs College. I had dinner at Spago and then walked through the casino. I stood and watched for about a half hour as a few men and women put one coin after into slots. They had the glazed, half-closed eyes of heroin addicts after the initial euphoria has worn off.
This is the kind of life we want to encourage in citizens? Can we actually expect people to be citizens when gambling becomes a major form of entertainment?
Now I suppose that in a free country, people should be able to gamble if they choose. So perhaps my prudery about gambling is not the final word. But I still remain opposed to slots parlors in Philadelphia.
For, first, of all kinds of gambling, slots are just the worst. There is no skill in playing the slots as there is in betting on sports events or playing blackjack. I can’t think of any form of “entertainment” more mindless than slots.
And, second, if you really want to play the slots, then maybe there should be places you can do. But, all other things equal, I would say they must be far away from any city that claims to be civilized and peopled by citizens.
Are all other things equal in Philly? More later.