Reflections from a small town
Rolling the Loaded Dice
by Charlie Angus HighGrader
Magazine Sept./Oct. 2000
In a small town you find yourself being volunteered (read commandeered)
for a whole range of civic-minded duties. One of the most common
is the charity gambling beat - either being a floor walker for
the bingo or manning the pull ticket booth at the mall on behalf
of some charitable cause.
There's been many an afternoon I found myself selling 50 cent
chances on a $100 prize. I found it a depressingly, eye-opening
experience. Take for example, the run in I had with the young
single mother.
She was pushing a toddler in an empty grocery cart and was headed
in the direction of the grocery store when she stopped at my table.
"I'll just take a couple of tickets," she said handing
me a crisp fifty. It was the only bill in her wallet. Judging
from the time of the month, I surmised it was the fruits of a
mother's allowance cheque.
Dutifully I gave her two dollars worth of tickets and a handful
of change. She pulled three losers and a free ticket.
"What the hell," she said "Maybe today's my lucky
day."
I handed her the complimentary ticket and she tossed in a fiver
for a chance on ten more. This exchange continued in ones, twos
and fives until there was a whole garbage bag of ripped losers
beside me and and an empty wallet in the woman's hand.
Dejectedly she turned around with her toddler in the empty grocery
cart and headed back out to wait for the bus back into town.
Whenever I think of the supposed economic spin-offs of gambling,
I think of that single mother.
The latest town to add its name to the long list of communities
considering gambling as a form of economic development is Cobalt.
A referendum ballot in the upcoming Cobalt municipal election
is seeking support for the notion of Cobalt chasing after a casino
license.
The idea is to use the casino to play up Cobalt's mining heritage;
can-can dancers, roller pianos, streets full of tourists, and,
of course, enough VLTs to make a Jersey mobster drool.
Sure, it would be great if it worked, but it's not exactly a novel
idea. Whenever a community hits the skids anywhere in North America,
the dream of being reborn as Vegas North, Vegas East or Vegas
wherever, is bound to pop up.
But communities from backhole Mississippi to rural Alberta have
found that slot machines and gaming tables do not draw new money
into the local economy. In fact, they act like economic parasites
feasting on local money that otherwise would have gone into buying
shoes for the kiddies or an extra toaster at Christmas.
Since HighGrader has already written a fair bit about the false
economy of gambling I won't bore you with it here.
What interests me is the "jobs" argument. In the north,
anytime someone promises jobs, whether one, ten or 100, its supposed
to render any moral qualms or sober second thoughts irrelevant.
Anyone who doubts the wisdom of welcoming "jobs" is
either a moralistic fussbudget or someone not hip to the realities
of the new economy.
Whether its selling dumps or dice tables the argument is the same;
"Hey, nobody's going to bring a Ford plant up here, tough
choices have to be made in order to survive."
It's as if towns in bad economic straits should be commended when
they chase after morally questionable or shortsighted sources
of economic revenue.
If we buy that argument why not be a little more daring in our
imagination?
Forget slot machines, Cobalt should go after more adventurous
vices. What about a full fledged red light district? Hell, if
that didn't bring tourists, nothing would.
How about going even further afield? In Amsterdam there are cafés
that allow you to smoke as much hashish or marijuana as you like.
We could turn the Cobalt into the Hophead Capitol of North America.
We could follow the lead of desperate villages along the Afghani
border bring which bring in the greenbacks by hosting bazaars
for stolen military hardware.
Or, we could simply concentrate on selling the best thing Cobalt
and the rest of Northern Ontario has to offer -- wonderful communities,
safe streets and people who will do anything to help their neighbours.
And if you were really on the prowl for a card game there's lots
of nice local folks who'd be glad to skunk you in a penny game
of five card draw.
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