Gambling won’t solve state’s woes
Local editorials from 50 years ago are being reprinted every Monday and Tuesday in this column. This editorial appeared in the Valley Independent on June 13, 1967.
We trust that the members of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who have a lot of hard work ahead of them, are not planning to waste their time or the public’s with any extended or serious consideration of such proposals as authorization of betting at so-called flat-racing tracks and the institution of a lottery to be conducted by the state government as a revenue-producing device.
Gov. Shafer was questioned about both these proposals at his recent press conference, and some of the reports written concerning his responses tended to give the impression that the governor might not be averse to such ideas. Anyone who would look at the transcript of the press conference will get no such impression.
It is a sheer waste of time for the legislators to be talking about flat racing in the context of the state’s present need for additional revenue.
Based on the experience with harness racing wagering, taxes from such sources could only be a drop in a very large bucket, wholly aside, from any importance which may be attached to such questions as the social and economic impact of racetrack betting.
As for the lottery proposal, we thoroughly agree with Gov. Shafer’s assertion that this should have no place in Pennsylvania, no matter how much revenue it might produce.
Putting the state government in the gambling business is not Gov. Shafer’s idea of the way to solve anything, including the financial problems. It isn’t our idea, either, and we urge the legislature to forget it.
Sources are going to have to be found for increased revenue. And whatever sources the legislature finally agrees upon, the money will come out of the pockets of the people and out of the state’s economy.
And so it should.
A lottery would simply take money from those least able to afford it. And it would encourage the notion on the part of both the public and those in public office that there is some easy, painless way to expand the services and facilities the people want. There is no such way and those members of the assembly who are trying to pretend that there is are false to their trust.