Advertise OK Casinos As A Tourist Strategy?

The other morning, a Tulsa talk radio host suggested that Oklahoma tout Indian casinos across the country as a tourist attraction.  What a rotten idea.  According to many studies, casinos attract more crime.  According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The negative changes include about a 10 percent increase in auto thefts, larceny, violent crime, and bankruptcy in counties four years after a casino has opened, and an increase in bankruptcies within 50 miles of a new casino."  We have enough people going to casinos as it is.

We don't need to promote these organizations that divert money from being invested, used for groceries, paying utility bills, mortgages, car payments, student loans or treating loved ones to a good dinner, movie or trip to a fair.  I know that Dave Ramsey calls gambling a "stupid tax".  Many Christian leaders encouraged their congregations to vote against the state lottery years ago; and rightfully so.  No state has received near the money that was promised to go to education.  Thousands of people across the country have become addicted to gambling and faced bankruptcy after it has become available.

I'm not typing here to get gambling outlawed.  I just don't want to encourage millions of more people across the country to come to Oklahoma to gamble.  Las Vegas is known as "Sin City".  We don't want the Sooner State to become knows as the "Sinner State".  Our values here are better than that.

As oil and natural gas have become more plentiful in America, their prices have come down.  That has led to many wells in Oklahoma going dormant, which has led to lower income to the state from those industries.  Oklahoma needs to diversify our economy more to ensure we can keep our government running without raising taxes on citizens.  I think that Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell can advertise Oklahoma's varying environments, sporting opportunities, sunny climate and eager workforce to other states' citizens as a tourist and relocation attraction.  (Have you been to southeast Oklahoma where the landscape looks like Colorado foothills full of pine trees?)

What other ways can our government come up with to bring more dollars to their coffers?  Feel free to share them with me at craig@conservativereference.info