20 June 2008

W.Va. and Gambling

"West Virginia now ranks second only to Nevada in the share of its state budget that comes from gambling revenues," The Associated Press reports.

AP cites figures from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, which "said gambling revenues equaled nearly 9 percent of the state's 2006 general revenue budget."

The institute's report also found that "West Virginia's budget reliance on gambling dollars grew by 6.4 percent between 1998 and 2006, the most of any state," the AP article said.

"Pegging West Virginia's gambling revenue at $639 million for the last fiscal year, the report also ranked the state first for such funding as a percentage of personal income, and second only to Nevada in such revenues per resident," AP reported.

1 comment:

clear eyes said...

Clearly, we are now addicted to gambling money in this state. The question is how we will ever be able to get out of this cycle of dependency. Will it take a huge tragedy of some sort or will we have the willpower to just go cold turkey at some point? I'm guessing the former based on the lack of willpower demonstrated by all branches of our state government.