by insisting that “the upside” to having casinos in the state is significantly bigger than “the downside.” This language of cost-benefit analysis might be fitting if there were a single entity that were subject to both the upside and the downside. But of course, the benefit to the state is due to a transfer of wealth, and as taxes go it is a highly regressive one, hitting lower-income people hardest. It also cannibalizes other forms of taxation such as sales taxes, since money spent on gambling isn’t spent on other things.
