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Originally Posted by rickholio
I'm curious about your conclusions as to 'where the money went' with the VLTs. We have a situation not too dissimilar here in NS, but the Hamm government is so opaque that you can barely tell money gets spent, let alone how much or on what. What is it about conservatives that makes them congenitally incapable of coming clean on anything, telling the truth willingly, or give up any sort of facts without holding a gun to their heads?  |
Interesting that you mentiion conservatives here. It just so happens that at the time of the big Winnipeg casinos and gaming rooms coming into effect the conservatives were in power here in Manitoba. I took to calling them "the Filmon regime", and under the leadership of heir Filmon they did exactly what you're describing. They got a $200 million dollar per year boost yet seemed to have very little to show for it.
Conservative parties, when headed up with good leadership, can be a great thing for a state or province, but when led by the proverbial fat-cat with rich friends, well, the mystery of where the money went becomes no mystery at all. As much as I'd like to believe that that money was absorbed into the machine and spread out across a zillion social programs and infrastructure projects of benefit to society, I choose to not try to kid myself.
It just strikes me as amusing that up until 15 years ago there was no extra $200 million per year gambling revenue to the government. It is likely the same in several other provinces and US states as well. Yet you still hear governments crying about not having enough to go around.