"The joker is wild" the dealer calls as he offers his game of chance. But as we watch the current state financial debacle its our task to declare the joker IS wild because those dealing expanded gambling for Kentucky are playing the role of the joker and, without doubt, offering wild ideas.

Let’s look at what’s been proposed: slots at the horse race tracks exclusively in order to "support" the horse industry; the Kentucky Lottery Corporation overseeing these slots, dispensing with the need for a constitutional referendum; casinos at the race tracks; stand alone casinos; casinos bound by law to give some of their profits to the horse industry; a constitutional referendum to allow slots; a constitutional referendum to allow casinos; etc.

All of these ideas have one thing in common: They are nothing more than a premeditated effort to get into the assets of Kentucky’s families. Think about it — businesses don’t gamble, nor do corporations, nor do nonprofit organizations, nor religious denominations, nor academic institutions, nor civic groups – just moms and dads, with a few college students thrown in for good measure.

They want to tap into your family’s savings accounts, retirement funds, set aside college tuition, home equity, property and business — anything of value that they can entice you to risk.

Like prospectors, greedily looking for their fortunes in gold, gambling expansionists believe they have found the mother lode in the untapped pocketbooks of Kentucky’s families. But regardless of all the promises that expansionists offer as they try to sell their snake oil to the General Assembly, they will use the assets (or indebtedness) of Kentucky’s families to pay for them.

How will that help the people of Kentucky?

For that matter, how will that help the government of Kentucky? Expansionists, after first saying they want to help the state horse industry, are now saying they’ll take care of the state’s revenue shortfall?

But the state government already has the power to raise revenue through taxation. Why then, should it want to bring in the gambling industry to raise money? When you already have your tax system in place, why would you hire an industry known for its craftiness to collect your income? Isn’t it a little like asking the fox to raise your chickens?

The answer, of course, is political power through the money that flows and flows and flows. Not government money. Not money from the big, out-of-state gambling interests. Not the money of visitors to the Commonwealth. But your money, and that of your neighbor. It’s money you will wager (and lose), and money you will pay in taxes to offer assistance in the plethora of societal maladies that will ensue.

Remember your money flows to them, not from them.

Yet there is one more insidious plague that will slowly, almost unrecognizably, follow and change Kentucky and Kentucky’s families forever, and no one is talking about it when they paint a bright future with gambling.

After gambling money starts flowing, consider what kind of politicians will be elected with the gambling industry’s campaign contributions. (And, without a doubt, the industry will be the state’s most generous contributor.) Will those newly elected legislators care about prostitution (which is legal in Nevada for the sake of Las Vegas)? What about the strip bar scene, pornography, or nude dancing? Will the sanctity of human life, cloning or abortion be prominent issues? Will they care if gay rights are pushed in Kentucky communities or if condoms are distributed to Kentucky teens?

Don’t bet on it. It’s a little about your entertainment and all about their bottom line. They simply want the money that Kentucky’s families have in their grasp.

But in this session of the General Assembly, let’s give them our bottom line — let’s say no to the joker and his wild ideas, lest the joke be on us — and on our children.