No charity for casinos

Those who get annoyed when people on public assistance use the money to buy junk food will find the news out of New Orleans especially hard to digest. Some city leaders are toying with the idea of using much of the humanitarian funding pouring in after Hurricane Katrina to offer tax breaks to glitzy casinos — complete with all the addiction and despair that gambling halls attract. The gaming industry says it simply wants the same treatment that other businesses get, that casinos employ 16,000 people in the area.

Down in the bayou, such ranting amounts to crocodile tears. Few people fear the casino industry may end up on the skids. And casinos are not like other businesses.

We applaud Utah's three congressmen for joining in with 65 other representatives to ask that the goodwill donations and government funds of Americans go toward reparations for families and other pressing needs. People in the impoverished Ninth Ward don't need a Las Vegas South. They need to get back a sense of community. The vision the gaming industry has for the Gulf Coast should never be confused with the American dream. Some high rollers would love nothing more than to see Cuba — after Castro — turn into a nest of casinos, with casino cruise ships gliding back and forth between New Orleans and Havana, smoke stacks — and passengers — lit up and spewing dollars. The "old" New Orleans was hardly a bowl of moral fiber, but it looks pretty healthy when compared to such fanciful notions. And now, with everything at square one and the city weighing its options, solid citizens need to express their feelings about ways to spend and share the windfall of charity. Bean counters claim there's not enough money to go around as it is. Peeling off a layer for casinos would simply make matters worse.

"Gambling," George Washington once said, "is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity and the father of mischief."

Benjamin Franklin added, "Keep flax from fire and youth from gaming."

They saw the problem in 1776. Should it really be harder to spot in 2006?

Bringing New Orleans back will be a task. But bringing it back without letting the gaming industry undermine both its heritage and its future may prove even more daunting. By standing up to the gaming industry, The "Big Easy" could well be in for the biggest Battle of New Orleans since 1814 and Andrew Jackson. But it is a battle worth waging and, in the end, winning.