Hold out against gambling

In the United States, gambling has become the vice that proves the old adage that people who begin to tolerate something bad eventually will come to embrace it. As this newspaper reported last week, separate reports by the Pew Research Center and Stateline.org show how official, state-sanctioned gambling has become a staple of public budgets nationwide.

Utah and Hawaii are becoming more and more peculiar as the lone holdouts against this trend. Frankly, that's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, Utahns should be proud to stand against this tide.

To date, 42 states have official lotteries, most of which provide money for schools or other public services. Some in Utah have raised this as a possible way to reduce overcrowded classrooms without having to raise taxes.

But at what cost?

Should taxpayers fund necessary public services out of a sense of responsibility and duty, or because they believe they could strike it rich in a game of chance? And when taxpayers become conditioned to contribute to necessary services via a lottery, does that deepen the divide between them and the services they receive? Is there a similar sense of accountability as when tax bills come due?

The answers should be obvious. Over time, lotteries are bound to raise public cynicism and deepen the divide between those who serve and those who are served. In addition, states seldom have to account for the disproportionate numbers of poor people who contribute, or for the problem gamblers whose addictions are fed by an official state sanction. And when economies turn sour and gambling revenue begins to disappear, states will be faced with even greater difficulties raising cash than they had before.

But the problem goes far beyond state lotteries. As Stateline.org noted, about 900 casinos now operate nationwide, and billions of dollars are spent on various games of chance that could have been spent on more worthwhile things.

In short, there is a moral argument against gambling that seems to be getting lost amid the bells of slot machines and the lure of televised poker tournaments. Pew found that only 28 percent of Americans now find anything morally objectionable about it.

But the something-for-nothing gambit is one only suckers accept. Thank goodness Utah still can see that clearly.