Gambling is Just Another Tax

Some people like to gamble, some like to gamble a lot, but I wonder if they ever think about where their money is actually going? Would you stand for being taxed at a 54% tax rate? Probably not, but every time you buy a lottery ticket you pay 54% tax to the government because that’s what they get from the ticket.

Now the state of California is looking to add more slot machines, because they need more money. The governor signed deals with five tribes to give them up to 22,500 more slot machines to bring them to 32,500 slot machines total. He also signed a deal with one tribe to give them 99 slot machines, but they didn’t have any to start with.

If the governor is right, then the amount of money that would come from the slot machines would be about $500 million if all are approved. However, other state officials say that number is probably close to $200 million a year, quite a big disparity. The money would go to the state’s operating budget, which as usual shows that the government has overspent again.

But with the additional slot machines comes the fact that casino workers will still not be able to unionize as they have no rights under the current system. There is also the problem that if this many slot machines are approved, it will pretty much start to kill off the racing industry and all of those jobs because they can’t compete with the casinos.

They also won’t allow state auditors to come in and look at their books – which tells you that they are planning on ripping the state off on their share, otherwise why would they care? Then there is the competition factor because some bingo parlors run what are similar to slot machines to bring in money for charities. The tribes have the right to stop that as well since they have exclusive rights to the games – or better yet they can get the slot machines and then say that the state violated the exclusivity clause and now they don’t have to pay their portion of what they owe them because of the compact violation.

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