What’s A Sin Worth To You?

This is an invitation to grapple with wickedness. It’s a naked (don’t get your hopes up) ploy to activate your self-righteous impulses.

It is about gamblin’ and smokin’ and drinkin’. In other words, about what some folks would call sinnin’. And if that’s not enough to engage you, it’s got a pinch of politics, too.

It arises from a couple of items from this week’s news.

For one, the community’s railbirds are in mourning following Playfair Race Course’s decision not to seek a horse-racing season in 1996. The track has been losing money in recent years and it, unlike some pony players, isn’t counting on a change in luck.

One explanation for Playfair’s troubles is that an expanding menu of gambling options in the area is siphoning off the betting dollars that once passed through the parimutuel windows. Namely, multimillion-dollar state lottery jackpots and full-scale gambling casinos on nearby Indian reservations.

For that matter, the reservation casinos have been blamed for diverting gambling dollars from the state lottery, and the lottery, in turn, for taking them from charitable bingo operations.

One thing’s certain: There are more ways to gamble legally in this state now than at anytime in Playfair’s long history. Operators of all those activities will make arguments that they serve worthy purposes - from providing jobs and income to desperate communities to paying for necessary government services.

Suddenly, however, it’s a safe bet that both horse-racing and the Post Falls dog-racing track that once was considered a threat to Playfair, will be out of the picture while other gambling venues thrive.

Is the issue here one of moral rectitude or economic reality? Or something else? Is the Spokane area better or worse off because of this development? Are some forms of gambling more desirable than others?

That second news item? Democrats who rule the Washington Senate want to roll back state tobacco taxes and their Republican counterparts in the House want to ease the levy on beer.

Those politically easy revenue sources have been branded “sin taxes” for so long that most people forget it’s a pun. What’s unusual is hearing talk of reducing them rather than increasing them.

What’s your advice for the lawmakers?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.