California is so broke that the Legislature may not be able to resist the lure of easy money.
California legislators have debated the merits of Internet gambling for three years now. Despite tons of money spent on lobbying, campaign contributions and on public relations, those debates haven't gone anywhere. Sadly, this year may be different.
A opinion confirmed by the U.S. Department of Justice last month concludes that online gambling authorized by states for their state residents would not violate federal law. That means that gamblers could legally play poker, most likely, but possibly other games of chance for money as well, over the Internet in those states where legislators sanction it. State lawmakers across the country are clamoring to draft Internet gambling bills.
In California, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who called a halt to the Internet gambling debate last year, has signaled that he is prepared to make the issue a top priority this year. The argument for Internet gambling advanced by Steinberg and others is straightforward. They say that some 2 million Californians gamble illegally now on dozens of Internet poker sites located mostly offshore. If the state were to sanction Internet gambling within California's borders, it could regulate the activity, protect consumers and bring in some badly needed tax revenue.
A study financed by gambling tribes and some of California's biggest card rooms estimates that state government could rake in more than $100 million a year in additional tax revenue from online poker.
Even if the revenue estimates are accurate, $100 million is a pittance in the context of an $87 billion state budget. Certainly, it is not enough to pay for the host of ills that the exponential expansion of state- sanctioned Internet gambling would undoubtedly spawn. How does the state benefit from poor people gambling away their grocery money or rent on state-sanctioned Internet gambling sites? Or thousands of 20-somethings playing Texas hold 'em on their smart phones? While all proposals under consideration would ban those under 21 from gambling online, rest assured that tech-savvy California teenagers would find a way.
Gambling does not produce new wealth. It merely redirects money from one form of entertainment to another, from one player to another, with the big win ultimately going to the lucky sponsors of the gambling websites -- California's already wealthy gambling tribes and their card room partners in the campaign to legalize Internet gambling.
The public is not clamoring for more gambling in California. This initiative is driven totally by card room operators and gambling tribes, who already pluck billions from the pockets of California gamblers every year. They want more.
Despite the harm Internet gambling poses for California's most vulnerable citizens, an Internet gambling measure has a good chance of making it out of the Legislature.
Opponents don't even rate a meeting with the so-called stakeholders who are crafting this bill. So far, only the governor has expressed skepticism about the size of promised revenues. Good for him.
But the forces of greed are strong.
And the state is broke -- sadly perhaps too broke to resist the lure of easy money, false though it surely is.
Editorials are the opinion of the Merced Sun-Star editorial board. Members of the editorial board include Publisher Eric Johnston, Executive Editor Mike Tharp, Online Editor Brandon Bowers and Guest Editor Jessica Boerner-Grissom.