By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

I walked recently down the main street of my hometown to the R Bar tavern to try out the new video gaming machines. Not a gambler, I did so for research on this column about why the state of Illinois pushes gambling onto its citizens in such an unseemly way.

The small, dimly lit bar (aren’t they all) has three machines; the maximum is five. They are all electronically tied to the state’s computers somewhere; after all, the state government is operating these games in order to fleece its own citizens out of their money.

Legal gambling is the only state activity in which the state’s citizens must lose in order for the state to generate revenue.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.