Family policy group opposes expanded gambling

Rather than again expand gambling in Iowa, the Iowa Family Policy Center is recommending the Legislature make a call to 1-800-Bets-Off.

The center's president, Chuck Hurley, said a proposal to add Internet gambling to the state gaming menu in order to pay for higher spending, “we need our elected officials to find ways to reduce the burden on tax payers by shrinking the size and cost of state government.”

Hurley opposes a proposal for Iowa to become the first state in the nation to legalize in-state Internet gambling. Preliminary projections estimate that Iowans would lose enough money through the new system to generate an additional $11.5 million in state “revenue,” he said.

“Iowa legalized gambling in 1989 in an effort to generate more money for a state government desperately trying to balance the books at a time they were growing spending at an unsustainable rate,” Hurley said. “Rather than solving our financial problems, we taught government to both raise taxes and depend on ever increasing gambling revenue in order to run the state.”