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As much as I cherish little mountain towns and want to seem them thrive, and as little as I care whether people who have too much money waste it on blackjack wagers or gold-plated faucets, I'm disgusted by the Gambling Rush that has sprung up since the election last month.
Colorado voters just approved limited-stakes gambling for three old mining towns: Cripple Creek, Black Hawk and Central City. Now 11 other towns want to get in: Walsenburg, La Veta, Leadville, Lake City, Fairplay, Silverton, Silver Cliff, Trinidad, Aguilar, Creede and Manitou Springs.
Extending gambling to these towns would not require a public vote; our legislature could do it all on its own when it convenes in January. In fact, the General Assembly could have legalized gambling for Cripple Creek, Blackhawk and Central City. But it wouldn't, so the gambling proponents went the petition route for an initiated law, and won at the polls.
That's the first reason to object to gambling in the johnny-come-lately towns. Cripple Creek, Blackhawk and Central City went out and did the hard work of taking their case before the public. They committed time, effort and money, and they deserve to reap their just rewards. The other towns, the Lazy 11, just want to ride their coat tails.
The second reason the legislature should turn a cold shoulder to the Lazy 11 is that nobody knows what effect gambling will have. If what the proponents said is true, we could have a marvelous new mechanism for historic preservation and year-round tourism. But we could also end up with garish and gaudy honky-tonks whose major civic accomplishments are big, tough and corrupt police departments.
Nobody knows yet, and common sense says that gambling ought to remain confined to three isolated little towns until we have some clear idea of its effects.
The third reason to oppose the extension of gambling to all corners of the state is that it would defeat the reason gambling was permitted in the first place.
Who from Colorado Springs would drive all the way to Cripple Creek to play the slots if there were one-armed bandits in nearby Manitou Springs? Why not spare Denver's sporting crowd the tortuous drive to Central City, and install a few green-felt tables in historic Larimer Square? Gambling would cease to be an attraction which differentiated a few towns from the others. Those towns would lose the distinct attraction they sought, and they'd have to try something new -- how about another Old West attraction, legalized, low-stakes prostitution?
I opposed the gambling initiative. But it passed, and I've been wrong before. It could work well. However, let's find out before we put slot machines in every old brick building in the mountains.
LATER NOTE
I was wrong here. Gambling was not a statutory prohibitiion that could be changed by legislative action. It was a constitutional provision which required a public voate to change.
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