It’s not often that doing the right thing is so steeped in hypocrisy, so cynics savoring last week’s action by the Iowa Legislature to ban TouchPlay lottery machines surely can be forgiven for smirking. It’s hard not to, given that many of the legislators who voted to ban the slot machine look-alikes are the same folks who a few years back challenged Iowa Lottery Director Ed Stanek to increase profits, then walked away from the table without fleshing out how he and his staff might accomplish that. So there’s some dark humor in their disingenuous reaction of outrage over the proliferation of the “slottery” machines.

What’s not even slightly funny is the cost of the Legislature’s sloppiness – some estimates put it as high as $500 million – to businesses that invested in the machines. Even the most meticulous risk management assessments couldn’t have predicted the mess that would occur. Those who installed TouchPlay machines in their businesses feel burned, and rightly.

However, that doesn’t mean lawmakers should have accepted the muck they’ve made of things and promised to pay closer attention next time. Where the state’s growing addiction to gambling revenues is concerned, 2006 could turn out to be a watershed year when citizens finally said they’ve had enough.

Iowa already has enough opportunities for its citizens to fritter away their money at games of chance. Expansion of gambling is s dubious economic development tool unless it brings in dollars from other states – an unlikelihood, given that every state in the country save Utah and Hawaii has legalized some form of gambling.

It’s entertainment that has been dressed up to look like economic development, but it’s still entertainment, and it’s entertainment that cannibalizes other forms of entertainment. We’re not naïve enough to think legislators will tamper with that, because the state taxes gambling at a rate at which it can’t tax dinners or a theater show.

Regretably, Iowans will have to live with that. But at least the Legislature did the right thing regarding TouchPlay – even if it was a result of their own bumbling and not proactive policy.