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It just keeps happening all over Iowa. When the innovative economic development ideas run out and the future looks bleak, someone is sure to suggest a casino.

Some Jasper County residents are the latest ones to go for that easy-money bait. After being mugged by the sale of Maytag Corp., the Newton area seems to be building momentum with the Iowa Speedway and its surrounding development and the wind energy business, but now everyone will be sidetracked for a while by the dream of having their very own gambling palace.

Enough with the casinos. Iowa has too many already. A few of them are starting to lose their steam.

People in Jasper County have Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino to the west and the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel to the northeast. That’s enough ways to lose money.

A casino is promoted as a source of jobs, and it would be great to inject 600 paying positions into the Newton area. But who’s going to be funding those paychecks? The more casinos we have dotting the countryside, the less likely it is that any one of them is pulling in fresh money from outsiders. A Jasper County casino would have to be one heck of a showplace to make Des Moines people drive over instead of just stopping at Altoona.

A casino that rakes in money from tourists is a gold mine. A casino that just takes money from locals who love to gamble is a pretty low-grade form of economic development.

True, adding a casino to a racetrack would improve the drawing power of each. But you can fill a racetrack only so many times per year, no matter what’s sitting nearby.

And, of course, there’s the question of what gambling does to us as a people. It’s a lousy example for our children. It links the financing of our government to one of our basic weaknesses.

One more thing the good folks of Jasper County should consider before spending a lot of time on this idea: The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission would never grant them a license anyway.