The nation . ints from Los An-geles can be matched item for itemin my own state of New Jersey,where merchants maintain they cantell almost to the day the openingdate of a racing meet by the nosedive their businesses take. Extension of the legalization ofgambling means only an extension ofthese debilitating forces. DavidHume, a former trial attorney forthe Department of Justice and aresident of Charles County, Mary-land, has calculated (The Nation,Feb. 13, 1960) that the legalizationof slot machines has cost his homecounty literally millions of dollars innormal, healthy growth. Hume recog-nizes
The nation . ints from Los An-geles can be matched item for itemin my own state of New Jersey,where merchants maintain they cantell almost to the day the openingdate of a racing meet by the nosedive their businesses take. Extension of the legalization ofgambling means only an extension ofthese debilitating forces. DavidHume, a former trial attorney forthe Department of Justice and aresident of Charles County, Mary-land, has calculated (The Nation,Feb. 13, 1960) that the legalizationof slot machines has cost his homecounty literally millions of dollars innormal, healthy growth. Hume recog-nizes that slot-machine revenue didmean $399,190 to Charles County in1958, that this did keep the tax rateto $ compared to a $2 state aver-age and $ in nearby Montgom-ery County. But he argues thatCharles County is as close to Wash-ington as Montgomery, that it haseven finer natural advantages, thatit should be an ideal residential sec-tion for the sprawling capital. As aresult of its marriage to gambling,. ?, I960 however, the honky-tonk rather thanthe suburb has become its lacks the high-class developments,the well-manicured estates, the ex-pansive golf courses such as Presi-dent Eisenhowers own Burning Treethat give neighboring MontgomeryCounty its distinction. Hume argueswith every appearance of logic that,to get the benefit of approximately$400,000 in gambling revenue, the30,000 residents of Charles Countyhave sacrificed more than $32 mil-lion in reduced land values. Floridas Reaction A similar view has been expressedby Governor LeRoy Collins, of Flor-ida. Traditionally, Florida has beena wide-open state. For years, dur-ing the winter, it was the Southernhome of the nations most eminentracketeers and the hub of gamblingsyndicates; it supported some of thenations most flourishing bookmak-ing and numbers operations; and itsillegal casino gambling ran at a multi-million-dollar tempo, virtually withofficial sanction. Discussing thewidely prevalent attitude of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidnation191jul, bookyear1865
