William Bennett's Vice and Virtue

About once a year I love losing fifty bucks at a casino. I'm not a masochist and would prefer to win money, of course. In fact, every time I walk into Harrah's at Cherokee, NC or the Grand Casino at Biloxi, I expect to miraculously exit with several thousand dollars stuffed in my pockets. I fantasize about paid-off credit cards and eating at good restaurants for a week. I get high off the adrenaline rush. However, I am a realist and walk away from those blackjack machines once fifty dollars is gone.

I would never fool myself into thinking that gambling is a good thing in general. Consider this mind-boggling fact: More money is spent in the U.S. on gambling every year than the combined revenues of all recorded music, theme parks, movie tickets, video games and spectator sports. Gambling is the great American pastime, and its profits benefit a smallish group of corporate interests, organized criminals, some Native American reservations and a few state education funds.

William Bennett, former drug czar and professional virtuous guy, has been outed by Newsweek and the Washington Monthly as a casino regular. The author of eleven books on morality lost a half million dollars within two days last month at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He wired $1.4 million to cover his losses in a single two month period. He is reported to prefer $500 per pull slot machines and has a credit line of $200,000 at four casinos where he is a regular. He claims that he has broken "just about even" during his decades of gambling, but casino workers who watch him play have laughed at his claim.

"I've gambled all my life and it's never been a moral issue with me," Bill Bennett informed the public recently.

Gee, Bill, some people have smoked pot all their lives and it's never been a moral issue with them, either. Some folks hate war and are convinced their feet are planted firmly on moral ground. Yet Bennett has used such examples as evidence of America's "erosion of moral clarity." Why is his high-rolling butt more virtuous than mine?

William Bennett has made a sizable fortune with his various books on virtue. An outspoken critic of "moral relativism," he insists on a clear view of moral behavior based on conservative Christian Republican values. Bennett's take on morality includes condemnation of homosexual behavior, Jesse Jackson, gangsta rap, Jerry Springer, marijuana, affirmative action, and war protesters. The good stuff includes George W., Israel, school vouchers, faith-based initiatives, Rush Limbaugh ("a symbol of encouragement") and the pledge of allegiance. He refuses criticism of the cigarette industry, alcohol, and now gambling.

You can't escape from Bennett's virtue industry these days. His works are wildly popular, particularly among fundamentalists. His book on the morality of our war on terrorism has dominated bookstores recently, and every college graduate seems to receive a copy of his "Book of Virtues." Even Chick-fil-a gave out virtue booklets to children, so that morality could be served up with boneless chicken products ... okay, I'm no saint. Although I have read numerous PETA tracts on the evils of the poultry industry and have viewed their slideshow on institutionalized chicken torture, I still eat chicken. I'm one of Bennett's awful moral relativists, but at least I don't deny it.

"I view (gambling) as drinking. If you can't handle it, don't do it." As the drug czar under George Bush I, William Bennett could not preach loudly enough about the danger of inhaled tar found in marijuana cigarettes. Yet, he seems oddly subdued about the problems associated with gambling. His longstanding argument that drug use causes homelessness, crime, emotional and physical abuse, suicide, and financial ruin is equally applicable to legal gambling.