New Yorkers will decide Tuesday whether they want to allow seven new gambling casinos in the state.
The amendment to the state’s constitution to allow the casinos has the backing of the state’s business and labor community, who are financing ads that focus on potential job creation and tax reductions instead of actual gambling.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, a backer of the amendment, argues that gambling is already widely available anyway, so why shouldn’t New York cash in?
“We already have gambling, we just don’t call it gambling,” Cuomo said recently.
Opponents, including David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values, says it’s a regressive policy that will increase problem gambling.
“There’s not a single good reason to change the constitutional prohibition,” Blankenhorn said.
Blankenhorn says the casinos will bring economic blight to surrounding communities.
