Original art by Mark valentine
It is not always as dramatic as a Steven King novel, but a deal with The Devil always takes an evil twist in the end…
In the lawmaking business, they use the phrase “Sin Tax” when they make those deals. And there’s a recent evil twist on a current pact with “Old Scratch.” Because the income needed to fund education and veterans benefits is down. So cue the sinister background music as I reveal the culprit; that fewer people are gambling in Missouri Casinos.
The simple fact is Missouri gets money two different ways from casino gambling. The state gets a fee each time a patron walks onto the gaming floor and the state gets a cut of the overall action. Part of the per-head fee funds the Missouri Veterans Commission. And part of the tax on overall revenues goes toward public education.
The Kansas City mayor when Kansas City casinos first arrived was Emanuel Cleaver. And somehow, this is a man who has been involved in making several “Satan Sandwiches,” as he likes to call them.
Gambling obviously preys on our weaker citizens. You can see the pensioners sitting at the slot machines. But it becomes even more apparent when you see the busses assigned to pick them up from their group homes. Check the casino parking garages. You won’t find a lot of high end automobiles there.
Not all of the sins in Sin Taxes are equal.
You can find many studies that show drinking in moderation can add to longevity. You can find studies that show red wine can combat cancer. I can’t find any studies that say casino gambling has any good long term outcomes.
When the casinos first hit Kansas City, local nightclubs and restaurants took a huge hit and the support for our local live music culture thinned out. Restaurants closed. The casinos did not kill Kansas City, but we still limp a little.
A city can suffer from a sickness.
Read the medical definition and make your own judgment. Pathological gambling disorder (PGD) is characterized by gambling behavior that is persistent and recurrent and that causes significant impairment in a person’s life with family members, at work or at school
Old Scratch is good at this. He offers unacceptable options. Shall we find a way to help the casinos increase the money they take out of Kansas City? Shall we raise taxes on already overtaxed citizens? Shall we make our children and veterans do with less?
Maybe the devil will replace this money with a new offer and we could make another bet.
Marijuana might save us.
“When the casinos first hit Kansas City, local nightclubs and restaurants took a huge hit and the support for our local live music culture thinned out. ”
Got anything to back this up?
I have been a working musician for over 40 years. I back it with my own eyes.
http://www.boxofchalk.com/html/players/mvalentine2.html
So the answer is no. Got it.
Your reply is my personal experience has no value.
Why do you read a blog like this?
It seems like a total waste of your time.
Your personal experience has value, but it doesn’t even come close to supporting your assertion that “local nightclubs and restaurants took a huge hit and the support for our local live music culture thinned out” as a result of casinos in KC.
Now if you said “It sure seems to me that the arrival of casinos 20 years ago lead to smaller crowds in other nightlife venues”, it would be clear that you are just speaking from your own perception and not making a statement of fact you are not even close to prepared to back up.
Let me know if you need any more writing tips.
“Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich—something for nothing. ”
— George Bernard Shaw
You are not supposed to notice the Remora attatched to Carcharias Carcharodon as he chews through this particular “school” of fish. We can all take solace in knowing that these government mandated piscatorial pursuits, push peasants into poverty, provides patronizing politicians power at the poles, whilst promising to pluck parsimonious, parasitical, plutocrats poor.
🙂
I am gambling you can’t say that 3 times really fast. If you can while you click your heels three times together, test scores will go up in the KCSD.
Mark you are a very talented guy. Music, art, writer…
Pretty cool.
I seem to recall the “sales pitch” for the casinos back when we voted on them was education and roads getting the skim.
Well, by my best observation-the pot holes are getting bigger, and the kids are getting dumber.
Also, check the number of foreclosures, bankruptcy, and divorce in the area after they had been here a year or two. I don’t believe you’ll see a decline in that trend.
+1
Education and the benefits for same was the catalyst that motivated the vote.
Americans have no bitch. They love to wallow in tyranny, otherwise they would have overthrown this rogue, unconstitutional, totalitarian, oligarchial government, on the Federal, States, and local level over fifty years ago. Folks get the government(s) they love to wallow under.
Hey poor people!! Yeah you!!!
You need to scrape some of that lint off the bottoms of your pockets to go lose money at your local casino so Jimmy can get his taco pizza for lunch!
Well, get to it! Them taco pizzas don’t grow on trees or the imaginary ledger of the Fed Reserve!
The corrupt elected lackies, which is 100% of them, must steal their cut. This is standard operating procedure in the fabric of the American Totalitarian Oligarchy.