Government Takes Over Where The Mob Left Off

The Ontario Government in Canada is overhauling its casino operations. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is planning to close some casinos and open others with a view to expanding the games offered in its casinos. 

This, in and of itself, isn’t really big news. Governments in democracies around the world are involved in gambling although they prefer to call it 'gaming'. Some own and operate casinos, most operate lotteries and it isn’t really all that surprising that they would revise their services from time to time. They have to in order to achieve the revenues they need to combat the deficits they’ve incurred.

In Canada, the sale of liquor in most provinces is controlled by government-run retail outlets. Where it is available through private retailers, it is still (as it is in other countries) subject to significant taxes. Cigarettes are heavily taxed and their sales controlled. There is even a move to legalize marijuana. I don’t believe this to be an altruistic decision or one based on any evidence of the medicinal properties of weed. I suspect governments are standing by, rubbing their hands in anticipation at the potential tax revenues.

Many governments have legalized prostitution, including the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Nevada and even stodgy old Canada although in Canada we apply a typical schizophrenic approach. Prostitution is legal, soliciting a prostitute is a crime. It's sort of like making the sale of chocolate legal but asking how much it costs illegal. Only government could come up with something like that.

All of this got me thinking…..just exactly what is the difference between government and the Mob?

Booze used to be illegal. It was illegal to sell or purchase liquor during prohibition and while I don’t support a ban on alcohol, why is the government now in a business it used to prohibit?

It’s the same with gambling. The Mob used to run a simple lottery called The Numbers which was basically nothing more sophisticated than players picking three numbers and if your number hit, you won a jackpot.

In Canada, the government runs exactly the same game only they call it Pick 3. In other words, government now engages in precisely the same activity that it once declared illegal. How does giving it a new name make it more moral than the game run by the Mob. Of course, government took it a step further and now runs dozens of lotteries the Mob never dreamt of and realizes billions in revenues as a result.

Government casinos have significantly lower payouts than the old mob-owned casinos. In Vegas, the slot payback typically is around 95% to 97%. In most government run casinos, the payout drops to between 80% and 90% and many of them still don't make a profit or only a small profit. How is that possible?

I’m not prude. I like to have a drink here and there, smoke cigarettes and the odd cigar, have gambled in casinos and even smoked some Mother Nature in my day but it just seems to me that there is something both hypocritical and distasteful about government being in the businesses it used to convict and imprison others for. It seems more than just a tad hypocritical to me that  government was attracted to the business of 'sin' (their old name for it) for the same reason that first attracted the Mob......cash!

Al Capone

Each of these money-makers for government have some things in common besides having been formerly illegal and the sole province of the Mob in the past.

First, all of them are addictive and can ruin lives. I believe in people taking responsibility for their actions, I just don’t think government should be encouraging people to flirt with addiction in order to make money. Thousands of books and documentaries have been produced on the immorality of the Mafia for doing that very thing. The fact that government now sanctions and benefits from the cash doesn’t suddenly make it morally ethical.

Secondly, they are all a form of taxation and typically, taxation targeted most to those who really can’t afford the extra cost. We’ve all read stories in the news about people who have ruined their lives because of booze, dope and gambling; sometimes to the extent of committing suicide. Again, I believe in buyer beware. I don’t think we should prohibit these products or activities, I just question the ethics of government living off what they used to call ‘the avails of crime.’

Finally, there is something extremely distasteful to me about governments that are so desperate for money that they have to constantly twist what is and is not acceptable in society just to make some cash. It is particularly galling considering that governments need the money because of the lack of integrity in politics.

Governments need cash because politicians squander our taxes to buy votes. It’s really that simple. Election after election, promises are made and some even kept. Inevitably, those promises cost more than was detailed in the campaign and government finds itself in debt, scrambling to find new and innovative ways to get some money to pay for the crumbling economic reality they’ve created.

Stupid economic decisions are made like the bailout of the banks in 2008, a bailout that cost the U.S. alone close to $7 trillion. Wonder where that $15 trillion deficit came from? Look no further than Wall Street for half of it.

Wars, entitlements, bailouts, healthcare yadda yadda yadda. Promises made, money borrowed and eventually the government is left with no option but to find new revenue sources.

And that is how government ends up in the sin business. 

At the rate some governments are going, they will soon drive the mob right out of business. Of course then, they will declare that a victory. Some victory. It seems we are being governed by those who have more in common with Al Capone and Bugsy Segal than Winston Churchill or John Kennedy.

It makes you wonder if this was what Canada’s Fathers of Confederation or the founders of The United States envisioned as they drafted those noble documents that became our constitutions and then put their signatures to them.

Probably not. I doubt they envisioned the government concept they were creating eventually becoming pimps, bootleggers, pushers and casino operators but then, they had never heard of the Mob or the opportunities horning in on Mob's territory might provide.

As Elvis said before he left the building. "Viva Las Vegas!"

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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