Video Lottery Not Just a Business Decision

Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen is grumbling about his city's cap on video lottery machines. Mayor Levsen says Aberdeen's limit of one video lottery machine for every 424 people (that's 58 machines for 24,658 Aberdonians) should never have become law. "It raises issues of where the city government gets involved in individual business decisions, and the less we can do of that the better," Levsen tells KELO [Erich Schaffhauser, "Video Lottery Cap in Aberdeen," KELOLand.com, 2007.11.06].

We beg to differ. We're not talking about a grocery store's inventory of Cheetos or the number of tables or tacky signs a restaurant plans to install. Video lottery is a tax-collection scheme authorized and run by the government, which grants private vendors the privilege of operating the machines and sharing in the profits. The state gets 50% of the revenues from video lottery. If there's an argument to be had for why cities shouldn't be interfering in video lottery, that argument would come from Governor Rounds telling cities not to interfere with Pierre's funnest tax grab, not a defense of free market business decisions.

Sioux Falls city councillor De Knudson sees that state-municipality conflict and sounds ready to fight it out to get cities the right to control video lottery for quality-of-life reasons. Video lottery is a public health issue and a "blight" on the city, says Knudson [AP, "Sioux Falls May Try to Limit Video Lottery," Rapid City Journal, 2007.11.06]. Knudson and fellow SF city councillor Kevin Kavanaugh are seeking a cap of one machine per 125 residents.

Video lottery is clearly not just a business decision. Government has as much right to regulate video lottery as any other form of taxation... or pollution.