The Register gives space to Tom Coates, director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines. He pulls no punches:
Perhaps (the Touch Play debate) is merely the start of a larger drama about to unfold - a drama where Iowans finally awaken to the scam served up by elected officials of all stripes who have told them gambling is the latest form of economic development.
Decide now that gambling is really a bad bet. Gambling's negative economic impact, coupled with a dark moral character, may sufficiently be manifested to persuade Iowans to recriminalize it all. That's my hope.
I'm not sure if folks will go that far; sadly, a lot of people still see gambling as a quick fix, a "voluntary tax". Clearly a regressive tax - Bill Gates isn't going to but a ticket for the thrill of possibly winning a few million.
And, to quote that great businessman Vito Corleone: "Most people want (gambling) and it is forbidden them by the pezzonovante of the church and the government."
But the argument that a casino is "econiomic development" is clearly a fallacy. Every dollar in wages is a dollar (more, really) sucked out of the local economy. And no one looks at the saturation question. There are only so many people who will only gamble so much money. You could anchor a boat at Hancher, two blocks and one bridge from my humble abode, and I wouldn't play. And every dollar spent there would be a dollar not spent in Tama, Davenport, or Dubuque.
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