On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Republican State Senator Ken Rozenboom, who chairs the Senate State Government Committee which was considering a bill to declare a five-year moratorium on new Iowa gambling casinos, decided the fate of a new gaming license for Iowa’s second largest city.
“According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process,” Rozenboom said. “In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.”
That was that. On Thursday, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission voted 4-1 to grant a gaming license to the City of Cedar Rapids, and the ground breaking ceremony was scheduled for Friday. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell was exuberant, saying it was a “(transformative) day for Cedar Rapids and Linn County.” Lawsuits are expected, yet unless established gaming interests have bribed the judiciary, it seems there will be a Cedar Rapids casino.
I occasionally visited a casino during my lifetime. It takes less than both hands to count the number of times. When my parents took our family to the west coast by automobile, we stopped near Las Vegas at a restaurant that had a slot machine in the lobby. When my home town of Davenport got its first casino, I boarded the riverboat to see what it was about. I visited the land-based casino in Bettendorf for a wedding reception. When I worked at the oil company, the department head hosted a trip to Dubuque where we spent part of our time on a riverboat casino cruise. I once held a meeting near Philadelphia and the group decided to visit Atlantic City for dinner and sightseeing. We walked through the Trump casinos then in operation with row upon row of slot machines. During all those visits, I gambled away roughly $50. It seems unlikely I’ll visit the new Cedar Rapids casino to gamble.
Cedar Rapids is in close proximity to three casinos: Riverside, Tama, and Waterloo. If a person wanted a change of scenery, Dubuque is not that far away. My point in favor of the new casino is why should people have to drive so far to gamble? They shouldn’t. It burns unnecessary fuel, and the risk of a highway accident is increased. Why not let Cedar Rapids build a casino?
In his new book, The Sirens’ Call, released last week, author Chris Hayes discusses the deleterious effect of slot machines on our mind. He explains “the unique attentional trance the machine’s gameplay induces.” In a libertarian society, such simple pleasures, addictions and exploitation should be allowed. Society at large should not function the way someone’s nanny might.
If you like gambling, Cedar Rapids says Gamble On.
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