This article appeared on Penn Live on November 12, 2015.
State Rep. John Payne’s effort to help balance Pennsylvania’s state budget deficit has come under attack from a billionaire casino owner.
Payne, R-Hershey, is leading the effort to allow citizens of the Keystone State to gamble online if they so choose. In addition to expanding freedom, his efforts will raise revenue for the state and help fill the growing budget shortfall.
Winston Churchill once said that a man without enemies is a man without backbone.
Payne’s campaign has earned him one doozy of an enemy – casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the eighth richest man in the world. Adelson has declared war on online gaming, but perhaps not for the reasons one might think.
When Pennsylvania’s neighbors Delaware and New Jersey legalized online gaming for their residents, Adelson pledged to “spend whatever it takes” to overturn those laws. He funded the Coalition to Stop Online Gambling (CSIG), a group dedicated to preventing states from exercising their rights under the Tenth Amendment.
Adelson also turned to his friends in Washington, where legislation has been introduced to overturn state laws and prevent other states, like Pennsylvania, from undertaking the same reforms.
As the Republican candidates for president trudge to Las Vegas to meet with Adelson in an effort to win his backing for the candidacy, two have also introduced his legislation to earn extra brownie points.
As a casino owner, it is difficult for Adelson to claim he opposes gambling. Crocodile tears about the dangers of gaming just don’t fly when you own one of the largest casino empires in the world.
Yet Adelson also can’t admit that his goal is to limit his competition.
Bragging about corporate cronyism doesn’t go very far. Instead, using poll tested language, Adelson’s coalition drums up exaggerated fears about the online nature of gaming and claims that any phone or tablet can be turned into a casino.
Nevertheless, the legislation his lobbyists drafted won’t stop a single one of the hundreds of off-shore gambling websites that proliferate the Internet. It will simply prohibit American-owned and regulated competition.
In order to protect his brick-and-mortar casino empire, Adelson has turned his ire and pocketbook against Payne for daring to propose allowing Pennsylvania citizens to decide for themselves whether they want to partake in gaming.
The group has launched an ad campaign based on debunked claims about risks posed to children in the cynical hope that fear will conscript voters as de facto lobbyists for his business interests.
Pennsylvania’s own brick-and-mortar casinos support legalization of online gaming, and polls indicate voters do as well.
State legislators are expected to vote soon on the issue. They should ignore Adelson’s incessant campaigning, and simply do what is best for the Pennsylvania.
