Indian gambling: Unsettling math

The word today is that in 2005 Oklahoma's Indian-owned casinos generated $1.5 billion in revenues, a whopping 40 percent increase over 2004.

That's a lot of gambling money.

Guess how much the State of Oklahoma got for its "piece of the action," as negotiated by Governor Brad "High Stakes" Henry?

A paltry $15 million. The math's pretty simple. That's one percent.

That's the payback Oklahoma citizens get for seeing $1.5 billion disappear down the rat-hole that is legalized gambling. Why the traffic loads around the 90 casinos alone will account for more than $15 million worth of road work, not to mention the bankruptcies, the suicides, the broken marriages, the substance abuse treatment referrals, the children of compulsive gambler parents who will suffer from malnutrition because the milk money is being gambled away.

And the $1.5 billion was in 2005. Undoubtedly 2006 was even bigger, and Oklahoma got another $15 million in guilt money.

Where are the billions of dollars going? We aren't being told, although friends who are registered members of a couple of tribes tell us that they certainly aren't seeing any of the windfall. (In the interest of disclosure, while we ourselves are part Cherokee, we do not have tribal membership. If they ever start making payments, that might have to change!)

The libertarian portion of our nature argues that if people want to ruin their lives by gambling their hard-earned money away, let 'em. ("Everybody has the right to go to hell in his or her own fashion," the ghost of Ayn Rand soothingly coos to us).

But the pragmatic side of us argues forcefully that Oklahoma society cannot thrive when we are siphoning off funds that should be invested in savings, new businesses, infrastructure, etc. We are starving the private enterprise engine of progress by encouraging the darker side of human nature.

Gov. High Stakes is not a dummy. He knows this. Apparently he doesn't care.

But you should.