Point Spread

On the subject of gambling my attitude is libertarian. I do criticize state lotteries as essentially taxes on the poor. Still the libertarian wins out over the Good Samaritan and I say let them have at it, a view consistent with the hours I’ve spent at blackjack tables.
 
In legal gambling, as we tend to think of it, the rules are an open book. We know they favor the house or state, not necessarily to the same degree. The last I heard, the return on  state lotteries was a fourth of casino slot machines, information available to any interested bettor. It’s my understanding these rules of the game are well enforced. If foul play were discovered, either at private or state owned facilities, it would work to the financial detriment of the state.
 
But there are games going on in lower Manhattan that leave the aggregate of these games of chance in the dust. They take place in virtual secrecy with considerably less policing. They provide a breeding ground for foul play compounded by the fact that the big guys get to keep their winnings and pay for their losses with other peoples’ money, ours.  
 
I don’t fault Bush’s TARP or Obama’s Stimulus. I place a higher value on survival than on propriety. But a system that allows a select part of the private sector to inflict this cost on the nation is in need of major revision. It seems unthinkable that, horror of horrors, less regulation is in order. Clearly the opposite is the case. The two major financial collapses of the past century followed extended periods of deregulation.
 
We’ve heard some of the unpleasant details of avarice by the big players that has caused this country such harm. It’s unfair to paint all of Wall Street with the same brush. But the stereotype does exist. We know what these people take from the country. There are times when I get to wondering what even the decent folks down there give back. Then I realize that there is a legitimate need for honest bookies.
 
The price paid by the N.Y. Mets for Willie Mays to end his career with them was the promise of a place in the organization on his retirement from the game. He lost the position after taking a second job as a greeter at Bally’s Casino in Atlantic City. Pity he didn’t take up with a respectable outfit like Goldman Sachs!