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“Ultimately, this is about protecting the general welfare and these people, quite frankly, failed that responsibility miserably.”
by Les
Parx Casino, a Pennsylvania casino which has local residents losing money 200 times a year thanks to marketing practices like “free play,” continues to be in the news for the large number of parents who have been
caught leaving their kids in the casino parking lot while they gambled inside.
As of Friday, 10 adults had been arrested for leaving children in the Parx parking lot as they gambled inside. One of those citizens was Paul Vargas, a 35-year-old construction worker and father of two boys who went to jail last August for leaving his kids in the car while he gambled.
Why did Vargas go to the casino in the first place, a facility which government officials consider an “asset of the state”? From the story:
“Vargas certainly doesn’t consider himself a problem gambler. He said that he rarely goes to casinos, but that he and wife were having financial problems last year.
The bad economy had cut into construction work. They were short about $200 on their mortgage payment. A lucky blackjack hand, Vargas thought, could quickly make up the difference
The weather was mild that Wednesday night last August. Vargas and his sons took a break from watching an instructional DVD that came with the Criss Angel magic kit that had arrived in the mail earlier that day and headed to a 7-Eleven on Street Road, about a block from Parx, for chips and sodas.
“Our plan was to take a quick drive and get back home,” he recalled.
But on the way back, Vargas said, he saw Parx and couldn’t resist. He pulled into the casino’s winding entrance, parked, and went to place a “quick bet” at a blackjack table, leaving his boys and the dog behind.”
What was the reaction of state officials?
“Ultimately, this is about parental responsibility,” said Pennsylvania Gambling Board chairman Greg C. Fajt, “and these people, quite frankly, failed that responsibility miserably.”
The mission of our government, established clearly in our Constitution, is “to promote the general welfare” – a principle so important that its authors put it at the very beginning in the Preamble. The failed government policy of predatory gambling completely violates this mission.
When historians judge Mr. Fajt and other public officials across America who have relentlessly promoted this failed public policy, their conclusion will mirror Mr. Fajt’s eyebrow-raising quote: “Ultimately, this is about protecting the general welfare and these people, quite frankly, failed that responsibility miserably.”
Government officials are embarrassed
This story reveals just how embarrassed and uncomfortable the government really is with its policy of predatory gambling. The man left his children in the car for 10 minutes, not because he considered himself a problem gambler, but because his family was short $200. His punishment? 70 days in jail and bail set at $250,000.
Officials chose such an extreme way of making an example of this man because even they perceive casinos negatively. Had this father left his 12 and 7 year old in the car for 10 minutes to run into the grocery store to buy food for his children, it is highly unlikely he would have had a bail set at $250,000, let alone even been arrested. Government officials who support casinos and the lottery know they are not promoting the “general welfare” of the American people. Yet, in order to sleep better at night they delude themselves by saying it is a matter of personal responsibility and dole out extreme punishments to those who fall victim to these predatory policies.