I remember standing in Atlantic City in 2014 watching the Revel Casino implode literally and metaphorically. The half billion dollar taxpayer funded miracle project had lasted all of six years before collapsing under corruption investigations and unmet revenue promises. Now I watch New York make the same bet with worse odds.

This week’s rubber stamp approval of three New York City casino licenses tells you everything about who governments really serve. To witness gaming regulators suddenly grow flexible spines after years of glacial bureaucracy would be touching if it weren’t so transparently transactional. When Bally’s, Hard Rock, and Resorts World dangled 1.5 billion dollars in upfront licensing fees, suddenly every single proposal looked flawless.

The Trump angle here is almost too perfect. A former president turned defendant gets handed 115 million dollars by Bally’s for land near a public golf course his family used to operate. At this point we might as well build a revolving door between the casino approval board rooms and Mar a Lago. But the real scandal isn’t one grift. It’s that we’ve normalized industries bribing public officials through the legalized money laundering we call real estate deals.

They’ll tell you this is pure economic stimulus. Blinking lights that pay pensions. Revenue streams funding schools and hospitals. Well I’ve heard that song before. When Illinois legalized video gambling in 2012, they promised 300 million dollars annually for infrastructure projects. Reality delivered a drunken karaoke version, with municipalities often spending more policing gambling addiction than they collected in revenue.

The casino playbook resembles fast fashion. Flashing lights distract you from the sweatshop inside. Construction jobs bloom then evaporate, replaced by low wage service positions designed for high turnover. The industry’s own data shows table game dealers making 28% less than the city’s median wage. That’s before tips from drunken whales demanding comped drinks at 3 AM.

But here’s the masterstroke, this tribal knowledge of corporate welfare. Casinos invariably partner with local charities or underprivileged communities, half baking pilot programs like job training centers or financial literacy courses. Then when revenues underperform projections, guess which programs get cut first. The ones serving people they exploited as human shields during the approval process.

Just look upriver to Connecticut. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun promised to lift entire counties when opening in the 90s. Today, the towns nearest the casinos show bankruptcy filings 40% higher than state averages, hospital systems strained by gambling related mental health issues, and small businesses suffocated by casino employee parking needs. The house always wins. The neighborhood loses.

This licensing decision proves New York learned nothing from the Amazon HQ2 debacle. The very same political class that decried corporate subsidies fell over themselves approving this land grant casino giveaway. Because at least this time the windfall arrives in one lump sum before the next budget deadline.

I spoke with a Queens community organizer last night who joked they should offer Donald Trump a consulting deal. His talent for bankrupting casinos while extracting personal wealth fits the business model. But tired gallows humor can’t mask the profound unfairness here. The Bronx casino site sits blocks from some of the nation’s poorest congressional districts. Research from Harvard and UCSF shows low income areas near casinos see bankruptcy rates spike between 10 and 20%. But counting rooms don’t keep those statistics on their P&L statements.

Instead we get fairy tale projections. Developers claim their glass temples to chance will generate half a billion in annual tax revenue. They might as well promise unicorns grazing in the food courts. Commercial casinos in Baltimore generate barely 20% of their forecasted tax receipts. Reality bites when every degenerate gambler within 200 miles already spends at your property.

Here’s your tell. Land values around the approved sites jumped 3% within hours of the announcement. Commercial real estate thrives on certainty. But the working class tenants in surrounding neighborhoods now face certain evictions. Brooklyn’s Barclays Center displaced hundreds when luxury condos rolled in behind the arena. Count the months until headlines tout the casino adjacent loft space conversions.

People forget New York already has racinos, state run lottery, online sports betting, and tribal casinos upstate. Market saturation isn’t some liberal fantasy. Atlantic City now depends on Pennsylvania gamblers after hollowing out its own customer base. This casino gold rush resembles airlines crowding the same routes until every carrier bleeds money. Except this time they’re betting with tax dollars.

Would New York dare license three chemical plants in a floodplain? A gun store chain beside every school? Of course not. But some developmental math renders casinos special. Dollar signs outweigh social costs when campaign donors stand to profit. That’s not regulation. It’s alchemy.

The right answer stares us down. Tax Amazon properly. Reclaim empty commercial space for affordable housing. Reinvigorate underutilized infrastructure like the Javits Center. All better economic engines than vacuuming paychecks from restaurant workers playing blackjack on their Monday break. But those solutions take sustained effort, not quick sugar highs from slots.

In five years when licenses get revoked for compliance issues, or when tax revenues miss targets by miles, remember this week’s cheerful press conferences. Think of Atlantic City’s hollowed out downtown while demanding accountability. Then say a prayer for the families who inevitably pay steeper prices. The dice won’t apologize. But our hands built the table.