Construction on the first "state-owned" casino is still months away, and already the sounds of falling coins and ringing slot machines have Kansas officials salivating at the thought of the limitless revenue to be found as a proprietor of vice.
So why stop there? The state could start thinking about other vices to encourage and in turn channel profits back into state coffers.
Already, state leaders say the $80 million or so they expect to rake in next year from the state's four new casinos can pay for goodies including a boost to public employees' retirement benefits and a 1 percent cost-of-living increase for current state employees.
When legislators first discovered they could take the 1986 vote establishing a state-run lottery to open state-owned casinos, they thought the house take should be spent on lowering debt, improving infrastructure and reducing property taxes.
But casinos alone cannot pay for all that.
So maybe the state could expand on the courts' broad interpretation of the Kansas Constitution and assume that the word "lottery" actually means "anything you wouldn't do in church."
That opens up a whole world of vice just waiting to be exploited. ... |
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