State May Crack Down on Illegal Gambling

In the wake of House and Senate passage of a bill dramatically expanding Indiana's reliance on slot machines to fund public services, state lawmakers are now threatening to crack down on what is viewed as widespread illegal gaming across the state.

Of course, this makes all the sense in the world. Probably the strongest rationale for legalized gambling is that people are gonna do it anyway, whether it's legal or not, so the state should absolutely regulate it and, yes, profit from it. But that rationale evaporates pretty fast if illegal gaming is allowed to coexist with the legal stuff.

The broader point here is obvious, but worth thinking about: the real rationale for Indiana lawmakers right now as they seek to put 1,500 new slot machines in race tracks around the state is simply that they need the money. Lawmakers have decided to rely on (and officially encourage) what is universally recognized as an addiction-- gambling-- to pay for public services. And the speed with which Indiana legislators are moving to wipe out illegal gambling makes it pretty clear that they're already addicted to this new funding source themselves.

Make no mistake: Indiana legislators may not be saying it explicitly, but they want you to gamble. Indeed, they're banking on it.