When He’s Right, He’s Right

Like Matt, I think that Jacob Weisberg is 100% right on this one.

I think it’s worth noting as well that what seems to be the most common position among states–legal state-sponsored lotteries and machines (and perhaps horse racing), but other forms of gambling illegal–is the most transparently indefensible. I can see the libertarian argument, and I can also see a paternalistic argument that gambling should be banned entirely. But state lotteries have much, much worse odds than casino gambling, and also prey on the poor even more disproportionately. Wealthy people will sometimes go to casinos, or put some money on the Super Bowl, but how often will they go down to the bodega and buy 70%-vig scratch tickets? And then you have all of the negative externalities that come from black-market gambling. To permit narrow, state-sponsored gambling with horrible odds that functions as an exceptionally regressive tax while banning other forms of gambling for pleasure makes absolutely no sense at all.

…Matt makes a good point in comments: casinos also generate some jobs with decent incomes for relatively unskilled workers. Vegas, in particular, has generated a large number of unionized, middle-class jobs (which, incidentally, is likely to push Nevada Democratic sooner rather than later.)