Legalize Casinos to Resolve Fiscal Crisis

* As the public and private sectors look for ways to solve the fiscal crisis brought about by Orange County’s bankruptcy, a readily available source of income could be developed. Although we have typically avoided legalized gambling in the form of Las Vegas-style casinos in Southern California, the time is right to rethink our negative feelings about this.

For years, Las Vegas was a gambling destination that has recently developed theme parks to allow itself to become a family destination resort. We can proceed in the opposite direction by beginning with theme parks and adding casinos.

I realize that there has always been a lot of concern from the public about all of the ill effects of gambling. However, millions of Californians cross into Nevada each year and provide enormous revenue to the State of Nevada. We need the money in California, and, certainly, a disproportionate amount needs to be directed to Orange County until our crisis is solved. We should utilize the abilities of the gambling industry and allow them to build hotels and casinos in Anaheim.

We would need a special session of the Legislature, and, of course, we will need bonds floated to cover the expenses. This would be a five-year project, but one could easily visualize the ease with which revenue bonds could be guaranteed by the gambling industry. These bonds could be sold in anticipation of revenue and thereby allow Orange County to begin to repay some of its debt. We will need to make this issue a priority with all local, state and national representatives from California in order to get this measure passed.

The time to act is now. The revenue is available in California and is habitually going to Nevada. Let’s allow the money to stay in California and give the gambling industry the opportunity to run these operations in California as effectively as they have demonstrated that they are capable of doing in Nevada and elsewhere.

MALCOLM D. PAUL

Newport Beach