A Fiscal Temptation

Gambling and Excise Taxes as

Revenue Alternatives

The squeeze is on. Demand for government to decrease it's reliance on sales, property, and income taxes as sources of revenue is continuing to rise, leaving policy makers scrambling for new, less painful sources of revenue. Also going up are the costs of providing public services, entitlement programs, and conducting the other various functions of government. This upward spiral requires that they simultaneously look for better, cheaper, and more effective spending strategies. It is no wonder that policy makers are starting to feel the pinch. To make things all the more precarious, we are facing a federal debt that seems to swell exponentially on a daily basis and a national economy with the moodiness and sensitivity of a manic depressive. All in all, it is a situation that demands a whole new degree of creativity from all levels of government.

This cathartic hour in the fiscal evolution of our nation has pressured out a myriad of new and unorthodox strategies for spending cuts and new sources of revenue. One group of these new strategie

However decreases in tax revenues are not the only reason that private sector gambling is on the rise. For the many areas in the United States that are experiencing extremely poor economic conditions, legalized gambling is very attractive. The incredible

Tobacco has historically been a mainstay of the southern United States and the foundation for a great deal of it's early economic development. Unfortunately, it is also a killer and an even greater sin than that, it is an expensive killer. "Tobacco use is responsible for more than 400,000 deaths annually, more than the combined total from motor vehicle crashes, drug abuse, alcoholism, homicide, suicide, and AIDS"(J.A.M.A. 389) This is one in every five deaths. Deaths that were caused by an industry that has been shown to "dose" their products with nicotine in order to optimize it's addictiveness and who are suspected of targeting teens with marketing campaigns like Joe Camel in attempts to replace the older smokers that have quit or died off.

One only has to go to what was once known as "Sin City" to see this new P.G. rated attitude. The trashy, flashy, leisure suit-esque of Los Vegas casinos has been replaced by "themed entertainment" with it's pirates, wizards, and glass pyramids. Vegas Casinos have traded in their call girls for day care centers, their flashy hot spots for "family" entertainment.

Gambling (or gaming as it is now called in this era of the politically correct,) has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment in America. In 1993 more people went to casinos than to major league ballparks, ninety-two million visits. "Legal gambling revenues reached $30 billion, which is more than the combined take for movies, books, recorded music, and park and arcade attractions."(Gambling Nation 36)

The intense poverty of struggling communities in what was once the bible belt has spawned an armada of floating palaces with the advent of legalized dockside gambling. Their need for jobs has made the previously iniquitous side of gambling a lot more acceptable to the people of this highly religious region.

Tobacco has a lengthy history of being a profitable cash crop in the Americas. In 1613, John Rolfe, husband of the famous indian princess Pocahontas, sent the first shipment of Virginia tobacco to England. With that he started what was to become one of the largest and most important products of the New World. Early tobacco plantations created vast wealth for plantation owners due to the high demand in England. They also encouraged the slave trade.

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Approximate Word count = 2841
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)