Resist temptation of floating casino

Yesterday, the Pilot reported that riverboat gambling in Norfolk is “dead on suggestion.” Today their editorial page leads off with a piece citing a typical litany of reasons why our nanny state should protect us from casinos. The main thing I admire about this editorial is its refusal to engage in gambling puns. (No such luck with yesterday’s story, whose headline read “Snake eyes likely for gambling plans” and whose first sentence ended with “Don’t bet on it.”) But I resist much of the rest of what I find here.

First, the Pilot says “existing businesses forgo sales when money is diverted into casino slot machines.” This assumes we’d have no out-of-town visitors to the only gambling facility within a five-hour drive. The Pilot also tells us “Gamblers always lose, of course,” ignoring the fact that plenty of gamblers gamble to have fun. How else can one explain the popularity of weekly cashless poker tournaments at bars like Scotty Quixx and Tanner’s Creek?

Additionally, advocates who “have promised to put the receipts from gambling in a transportation lockbox” are not engaging in “a gimmick designed to sway lawmakers desperate for a few bucks to put into roads,” as the Pilot argues. They’re trying to sway lawmakers, certainly, but there’s nothing “gimmicky” about bringing to Norfolk an attraction that untold thousands would enjoy and that would draw tourists from all over Virginia and North Carolina.

The strangest passage in the editorial, rhetorically speaking, reads, “’Riverboat gambling’ even seems somehow historical, inspiring visions of paddlewheel boats and Kenny Rogers. [But] what the industry actually offers… is a casino on the water.”

Maybe I’m too blinded by a desire to squander my money to realize why “a casino on the water” isn’t the exact definition of riverboat gambling. If so, I’m equally intrigued by the idea that “Kenny Rogers” is the go-to vision for historical fantasies about the heyday of riverboats.

The editorial ends with Warren Buffett’s quip that “Gambling is a tax on ignorance.” Since Buffett is “one of Earth’s richest men,” argues the Pilot, local leaders “ought to listen to him.” I don’t have time this morning to determine which of the earth’s billionaires support gambling and which don’t, but I’ll bet I won’t come up snake eyes if I say the latter category is the larger one. (I’m told that Donald Trump isn’t totally opposed to casinos.) And since when are we supposed to listen to people because they’re rich?

Maybe I don’t make enough money for my opinion to matter, but I’ve seen more than a few smoothly functioning countries where casinos exist all over the place because their governments don’t legislate morality. One is France, commonly derided as a socialist state that bleeds its citizens to death with taxes. But there are plenty of limits to the size of its government, and one set involves how the state treats people like adults rather than children. If you’re skiing in the French Alps, no one will warn you that it’s painful to fall off cliffs; you generally have to take for granted that hot coffee can scald you; if you feel like spending twenty euros on a poker game, you can.

The Pilot is right that some visitors to a Norfolk casino will fit the profile of the gambler who plays “more than he can afford because he cannot escape the temptation until the boat docks again.” It’s almost too obvious to rebut that there are drinkers who imbibe more than they should, smokers who die sooner than they should, and so on. If the gambling industry is built on “appalling victimization,” so is the liquor industry, yet I’m still satisfied with the Twenty-first amendment.

Now that the city has shut down the nightclubs at Waterside, the riverfront at night is a dead zone. Elsewhere downtown at night there are bars, bars, and, um, more bars. If the popularity of Survive Norfolk last month proved anything, it’s that locals are starved for fun. Riverboat gambling will bring people to the city, specifically to the waterfront, where there are almost no “existing businesses [to] forgo sales.”

But maybe I’d feel differently if I were a billionaire.

Editor’s Note: I created the headline to this IYRTP, not John, in the spirit of ironicalness.

Veteran GOP lawmaker again seeks to legalize marijuana

Speaking of standing up to the nanny state, Del. Harvey Morgan, an “80-year-old, bow-tie-wearing Republican from Gloucester County, has proposed decriminalizing marijuana for the second year in a row.” His bill “changes the current $500 criminal fine for simple marijuana possession to a $500 civil penalty, [and] eliminates the 30-day jail sentence and the criminal conviction record that would follow a conviction for simple possession.”

Here’s something Republicans would support in unanimous lockstep if they actually believed in smaller government. It’s insane that Virginians can go to jail for thirty days for smoking pot. Since most pot smokers never get in trouble for their “crime,” the police can enforce this law selectively, using possession as an excuse to harass poor people and minorities. And drug tests that screen for pot smokers are used far more often for low-income jobs than for white-collar work.

I could go on for pages listing ways that drug laws unfairly affect the poor. Suffice to say that some of the world’s wealthiest men believe pot should be legal. We ought to listen to them.

In new poll, Gov. McDonnell’s numbers key to VA politics going forward

McDonnell’s 44% approval rating is lower than Obama’s.

Health insurance: Hampton Roads employers plan to shift costs to employees

Great.

Eliot Spitzer vs. Ken Cuccinelli

On Wednesday Virginia’s current attorney general appeared on CNN’s Parker Spitzer to discuss his health care lawsuit with the former attorney general of New York, who, to his credit, wasn’t stunned into silence when Cuccinelli told him the Affordable Care Act will lead to a government that can order us to buy vegetables.

“They can tell you what kind of car to buy, to buy asparagus, to sign up for a gym,” said Cuccinelli in a video available via the link above. “There is nothing they can’t order you to buy. They can make you buy [a car] every three years because Detroit needs money.”

I don’t support a car-every-three-years mandate, let alone one that forces us to buy asparagus, so I’m glad we have an advocate in Cuccinelli who will fend off any such laws passed by a future Congress. For one thing, most asparagus comes from Peru and China. A mandate would funnel far too much money overseas to those countries. Not to mention that asparagus makes your pee smell bad. The government is overreaching here.

Students, legislator push to carry guns on campus

A petition is being circulated by ODU’s College Republicans that would allow concealed weapons on campus.

Spielberg spotted in Richmond

Steven Spielberg was in Richmond yesterday to meet with the director of the Virginia Film office, Rita McClenny. When asked if he’ll be filming a movie there, he smiled and said “Maybe.”

McDonnell elected vice-chairman of Republican Governors Association

Not much to say here that’s not evident in the headline above, except that McDonnell was asked by Time’s Mark Halperin to give two adjectives to describe each of various other Republican governors. McDonnell replied that he finds Bobby Jindal “brilliant” and “savvy,” Sarah Palin “enthusiastic” and “passionate,” Mitt Romney “adept” and “hard-working,” and Haley Barbour “warm” and “tough.”

(Halperin also named Barack Obama, whom McDonnell called “liberal” and “very gifted.”)

Sometimes when I’m bored and there’s nowhere to gamble, I too make a list of governors and come up with adjectives to apply to them. It’s a fun game. I’m not as diplomatic as McDonnell at it, but then I’m not cut out to run for statewide office. When I finish with the governors, I switch to senators. I’ve played so often with the 111th Congress that the game has grown stale. That’s why I’m so psyched about the historic turnover in the midterm elections.