Letter: C.R. needs real economic development

Some members of the Cedar Rapids City Council feel that competition should determine which casinos will make it, if any, and which ones will fail. After all they say, the free market system is the American way.

Yet the same council, along with Linn County supervisors, didn't act so American when they passed a resolution to support only one casino developer and no others, even disparaging the competing developer.

Why would these policymakers, who love competition, make such an anti-competition move? Could it be that some casino investors are big financial contributors to their political campaigns?

Iowa has 23 casinos. Study after study shows the state has become oversaturated with too many gambling options. One only needs to visit Atlantic City to see the broken promises of economic development that casino gaming was to bring, only adding to the urban blight with shuttered casinos and lost jobs.

Cedar Rapids needs real economic development, not a license for rich investors to take money from its less well-to-do citizens.

Ed Faber

Cedar Rapids