Slot Machines No Cure for Florida's Ailments, Says State Lawmaker
by Jim Brown
November 2, 2004
(AgapePress) - Floridians are voting Tuesday on whether to allow slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to expand gambling in the Sunshine State claim they will hand over 30 percent of their slot profits to public schools. But State Representative Randy Johnson of Celebration, southwest of Orlando, says passage of Amendment 4 would require the state legislature to tax the gaming industry. In addition, Johnson -- who chairs the Orlando-based group "No Casinos" -- fears expansion of gambling in the state would lead to an increase in child and spousal abuse, prostitution, and street crime.
The state lawmaker maintains gaming advocates are trying to use children as a shill to incur a "scourge on the community." And as the chairman of the House Finance and Tax Committee, he says "we just don't have the stomach for this."
"We've turned down the expansion of gambling scores of times in the Legislature during my six years in the House," Johnson explains, "and we've done so because we didn't think that we needed to sell our souls for a quick buck. You know, you could do a lot of things to raise money for a good cause, but that doesn't make it right."
The plan to expand gambling, he says, sends the wrong message to working families that are having a tough enough time recovering from hurricanes and dealing with the rising cost of home ownership. He says lawmakers know better than to send the message to people that "they could get something for nothing" and that "if they were just to put money in the top of a machine that out of the bottom will come their salvation and the answer to all of their problems."
"We know that that's an illusion," he says. "We know that money won't solve their problems anyway. But that's kind of the sick, sleazy marketing approach that surrounds gambling in general."
Johnson says slot machines are literally the "crack cocaine of gaming devices," noting they induce problems ranging from physical and emotional stress as a result of high debt and overspending, to physical ailments from alcoholism.
