Maybe Totally Legalizing Vice Was Not Such a Great Idea After All
Kurt Schlichter
Being immune to the allure of sports betting is a fringe benefit of being immune to sports – I don’t hate the idea of sports, but I’ve got a lot of stuff happening (including writing the 9th Kelly Turnbull/People’s Republic novel!) and don’t have time to care. But even someone outside of that world can see that legalized gambling has exploded. What used to be some parlays among friends or maybe some bets with a bookie have gone corporate and gotten huge. It’s everywhere, including popping up on the rare occasions I watch regular television – bet, bet, bet, on dozens of different platforms promising big winnings if you just keep playing. Of course, the house always wins, but hey – maybe you’ll get lucky? And maybe JB Pritzker will turn down seconds.
BTW, the tubby Illinois governor recently reported winning $1.4 million at the tables. Apparently, everything he does involving tables is to excess.
You used to have to go to Vegas or Atlantic City to drop the next mortgage payment; now, you can do it on your phone. The original idea of these gambling meccas was to channel the ancient vice of gambling into something less outright destructive. You make it an event, throw in Frankie and Dino and a $7 prime rib buffet, and mom and dad can feel a little naughty playing blackjack with no harm done. Sure, there were degenerate gamblers before, and they will never go away; the idea was not to make degenerate gamblers out of normal folks. Keep it classy, keep it controlled.
But then Elizabeth Warren’s people started opening up casinos everywhere, and we had Powerball lotteries imposing the idiot tax on people with $2 and a dream in all the states. Then, more states opened up online betting. Now, your iPhone is Caesar’s Palace. Eventually, most of the walls holding back unlimited gambling fell, and it’s everywhere. I’ve never seen a Warren kind of Indian in Los Angeles, but there are a dozen Indian casinos within ten miles, meaning an hour on the road.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2025/11/10/maybe-totally-legalizing-vice-was-not-such-a-great-idea-after-all-n2666160
