Article: Taxpayers Should Reward Gaming Industries--Win or Lose

By Grant Lawrence

Recently it was reported that casinos may not be allowed to use any of the federal stimulus money. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has asked for clarification of the Casino ban by pointing out that casinos are often the only suitable place for conferences and workshops.

I support Senator Reid on this.

I do believe that the federal government should be doing more to help the casinos. After all, look at what the federal government has done to help other institutions that engage in gambling.

For instance the government has pumped billions into AIG, a gambling operation that pretended to be an insurance company. Now the casinos make sure that they come out the winners in their gambling transactions but AIG must have been fairly unschooled in gaming so they lost big on their bets.

So here we have a case where the federal government is rewarding inefficiencies and bad business practices by giving hundreds of billions to AIG but not allowing successful casinos to get a little of that stimulus money.

Is that the message we want to send our young people? That you can be too rich too fail so we want to make sure that you are covered in your gaming practices. But if you are a successful gamer then you get nothing from the taxpayers. Or do we want to send the message that whether you win or lose, if you are a super wealthy gambler, we will reward your success as well as your failures.

AIG is only one example of gaming gone bad. Trillions are now being pumped into the hands of the Wall Street and banking gamblers that made their bets on "toxic assets," credit default swaps, off balance sheet dirivatives, and whatever other gaming that seemed a good bet at the time.

Some say that when it all said and done that there may be 5 to 10 trillion dollars that will have been used to save the losers in the Wall Street gaming industry. But casinos are an example of successful gaming and therefore they should also be rewarded with their fair share.

If we make sure all big time gaming is rewarded our young people will continue to have faith in the American system. A system that rewards success as well as failure as long as you are a part of the elite wealthy that control the country and the world.

So I stand with Senator Harry Reid in asking that all gaming be rewarded and not just the failed operations. We must reinforce American values here.

An America that values the failed rich and the successful rich and will continue to make sure that the super rich get to enjoy the fruits of the people's labors. An America where the people support their super wealthy with pride. An America where the super rich know that they have the full faith and support of the people as well as their government. An America that is also willing to do what it can to help cover the gaming of the super wealthy around the world. An America that puts their dollars into action by making sure that super wealthy gamers around the world know that they are loved and cared for by the taxpayers in this country.

I join with Senator Reid in asking for an America with deep pockets for those that need it most.
The super wealthy gaming industries.