Editorial

Have you noticed those slick televisions ads lately selling Amendment 4 to Floridians as a long overdue, painless and harmless way of regulating and taxing gambling to help with overcrowding schools and underpaid teachers? With a flush bank account of well over $13 million, if you haven’t noticed them yet, don’t worry—we’re going to be bombarded with them from now until Nov. 2.

My question for Floridians—and particularly Baptists in the Sunshine State—is simple: Will you be enticed enough by the polished, Madison Avenue campaign to actually believe Florida can have it all—hundreds of millions of dollars of annual tax revenues for our kids, seemingly at no cost to our state?

Anyone who is tempted to believe such a bait and switch ought to remember what Floridians were promised in 1986 when the government-sponsored lottery was approved in our state. The Sunshine State bought the deception then that gambling was a panacea for our state’s education budget. Instead, the Legislature—as politicians are known to do—saw the revenue windfall as a way to shift education dollars to other priorities, leaving Florida with no better funding for our schools. The result? We’ve created a perversely co-dependent relationship between our state government and gambling’s losers: our state’s needs are now necessarily tied to citizens who throw away their money on a dream of a big payday.

Backers of Amendment 4 say it will be different this time. The gambling industry expects us to believe this again?

Florida Rep. Randy Johnson (R-Celebration) and chairman of No Casinos, Inc., knows how the Legislature works. He warns Florida’s citizens to be wary of promises made by the gambling industry and politicians about what future legislatures will do.

Don Hepburn, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s Public Relations Division, has watched for more than two decades Florida’s gambling industry and its greedy desire for expanded gaming in our state. He has one, simple word for the industry’s promise that Amendment 4 will lead to more money for public education: “lie.”

About the proponents’ promise of more education dollars, Hepburn told me, “This is an old lie told about the lottery and today continues to prove to be the lie it is. Florida’s education system did not receive significantly new and supplemental funding as a result of the lottery. Rather, the lottery funds only replaced existing general budget funding for education.”

Hepburn added, “When inflation is factored into education funding, the Florida education system today does not receive any significantly increased funding because of lottery proceeds. And so it will prove true with the slot machine proposal. In government all money is green. So any new source of funds is automatically applied to the general budget fund to be used any way the Legislature wants.”

Nevertheless, let’s assume for the sake of argument that the revenues would actually go to education. Even if it were true—that still does not make Amendment 4 a good bet for Florida.

When you read Amendment 4 at the ballot box Nov. 2, don’t miss the following key statement under the heading, “State and Local Government Cost Impact.” In addition to increased costs to state and local governments for administrating the slot machine revenues, there’s this: “…research indicates that when gambling becomes more accessible, there are typically increases in problem gambling. Costs associated with problem gambling, while not quantifiable, may be significant, and would come in the form of increased law enforcement costs, mental health and addiction treatment costs, and possible increases in unemployment compensation costs, among others.”

It’s no wonder that Florida’s law enforcement leaders stand united in their opposition to Amendment 4.

“Casino Gambling: A ‘No Win’ for Florida,” a Florida Department of Law Enforcement study—available on the No Casinos Web site (www.nocasinosfl.com)—outlines the dangers of increased crime, social costs and the false hope of economic development that come with increased gambling.

So, what about the claim of Amendment 4 backers that this measure is a limited, local option proposal which affects only the citizens of Miami-Dade and Broward counties? Again, Don Hepburn, a long-time observer of Florida politics, rightly notes, “The state Legislature has repeatedly defeated proposals to permit slot machines in pari-mutuel facilities. And the gambling industry has been defeated in their efforts to legalize casinos in Florida. So now the gambling industry wants to convince voters there is no harm for people already gambling to have the additional option to play slot machines. This is a well conceived effort to go through the back door to make every Florida pari-mutuel facility into a mini-casino.”

Approval of slot machines in South Florida will inevitably result in slot machines in every pari-mutuel facility in the state as those outside Miami-Dade and Broward demand a level playing field. And, it won’t stop there. These mini-casinos will inexorably lead to the introduction and proliferation of full-scale, Atlantic City/Las Vegas style casinos across the Sunshine State.

All of this because Floridians bought the lies of Amendment 4.

It is indeed a perverted, truly evil notion that our state should depend on its revenues by counting on gambling’s losers. There’s already too much gambling in this state; we certainly don’t need our government to become even more dependent on the further abuse of its own citizens to pay the Florida’s bills.

Florida Baptists, don’t stand by idly while the gambling industry attempts to make the people of our state even bigger losers. Our church members, relatives and friends must be educated about the false promises of Amendment 4. Visit the No Casinos Web site and distribute information about this important issue.

Don’t make a bad bet; let’s defeat Amendment 4!