NC wisely balked at adding more casinos, but pressure to expand will keep growing | Opinion

Like gamblers who return to casinos despite their losses, casino operators will keep going back to states without casinos until they win.

That’s the pattern that lies just beyond the surprising defeat of an effort to add three non-tribal casinos in North Carolina. Senate leader Phil Berger put his full weight behind a proposal to include casino expansion in the state budget, but he was blocked by an unlikely coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans.

Berger said he won’t bring up casino expansion again this session, but that’s likely a pause until the push is renewed next year..

Joseph Weinert, executive vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group, a firm that advises the casino gambling industry, told me, “Once a gaming debate begins, it does not end until there is success for the gaming industry. It may take two years. It may take 20 years, as it did in Pennsylvania. But eventually the economic and marketing forces will prevail.”

It’s hard to argue with that prediction. Casino gambling, once confined to Las Vegas, spread to Atlantic City in the late 1970s, then to Indian reservations and now 24 states have approved commercial (non-tribal) casinos.

Still, North Carolina would do well to remain an exception. It already has three tribal casinos operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina and the Catawba Indian Nation. That’s good for the tribes, but adding non-tribal casinos isn’t good for the state.

State governments should support their services by claiming a portion of what people make, not what they lose. States that increasingly turn to gambling for revenue invite government corruption and abuse people who chronically lose more than they can afford.

Gambling is a form of entertainment and, for the skilled or lucky, can be a source of profit. The question is, when is enough enough? North Carolina already has an expansive lottery that disproportionately draws its revenue from lower income people. There are already tribal casinos. The legislature just approved betting on sports and horse racing.

Does North Carolina now need more casinos? Berger and other supporters say yes. Their reasoning? Because other states have them.

Virginia has approved casinos and has opened one in Danville, Va., across the border from Berger’s Rockingham County district. Berger says North Carolina should not be sending gambling dollars to Virginia. Instead, it should allow casinos in Rockingham and other rural counties to keep those dollars home and spur economic development.

While casino proliferation is one argument for getting North Carolina into the game, it’s also a reason to stay out. A 2022 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that, “as commercial casinos and other gambling options have become more widespread, their ability to spur regional economic development has become more limited.” The report concluded that “despite tax revenues being a major motivator for state legalization of casinos, there is little evidence that they boost state taxes. We also find that the job gains from casino development are limited to those in lower density areas that lack nearby casinos.”

John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, was baffled that Republican leaders were pushing casino expansion and grateful that conservative Republicans joined with Democrats to block it. But he knows it’s coming back.

“We were very pleased with the outcome, but it ain’t over until it’s over,” he said. “We fully anticipate they will be back to push for the same thing. We definitely have to remain vigilant in our efforts to oppose it.”

Rustin doesn’t understand why a booming state needs a troubling new revenue source. “There’s no product that’s created,” he said. “It’s just a process of separating people from their money. The casinos win and people lose.”

Expanding casino gambling is a bad bet. North Carolina legislators resisted it once, but the odds are they won’t do it twice.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached ta 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com