Iowa should get an exemption from the old “baseball is America’s pastime” saying. Baseball isn’t Iowa’s pastime. Gambling is.

Yep, Iowans, there is nothing that you love to do more than belly up to a slot machine and pull that handle like a laboratory rat pounding on the feeder bar.

You are not alone. In my home state, Minnesota, everyone has come to blushingly accept the fact that gambling is where it’s at.

Gambling is spreading so fast because of its ability to generate quick cash and “jobs,” and because the populous can’t get enough of it. But there always has to be a veil.

“We’re approving this riverboat so people can take nice dinner cruises. Heck, there’ll be gambling, but the boat theme will be great.”

Never mind that these casinos only cruise once a day to comply with the law, and that those cruises run in the early morning. Thank goodness for rivers, because if we plopped those riverboat casinos 10 yards in from the banks of the sacred rivers they float upon, they would be considered bad.

“That would be a CASINO! A privately-run casino just like in Vegas! We do not subscribe to that kind of moral system!” Right.

Every form of gambling in Iowa has its own little excuse.

“American Indian casinos? Well, we can’t really regulate them and besides, American Indians have gotten ripped for so long, they deserve the revenue.”

Slots at Prairie Meadows? “They’re the only way we can save the racetrack.”

The lottery? “Charity! Five big percentage points go to charitable causes, so it must be good!”

It is time for the people to stand up and admit that gambling is the newest form of addiction and taxation for the state to condone.

Maybe it’s because it is irresponsible for government to condone gambling, in the form of municipal tracks like Prairie Meadows and lotteries. Imagine the fury if the Iowa legislature allocated money for a “Whiskey. It’s a Great Chance to Quench Your Thirst” ad campaign.

No one cares that the government buys ads enticing people to buy lottery tickets. People seem to group private casinos with private militias, instead of the private stores and bars they truly resemble.

Maybe that’s because it legitimizes gambling losses in people’s minds. At least their lost money didn’t go into the pocket of some SHIFTY-EYED casino operator.

The time has come for the state of Iowa to reevaluate its stance on gambling. Either open it up or shut it down. Unashamedly. Continuing with this policy of allowing casinos only under specific circumstances is not consistent, and when government is inconsistent, it is nearly always in the wrong. Totally open private gambling would get some competition into the state, which would reward the gambler with better return ratios.

It seems that people want gambling in every town. If so, let it happen. Society can have its vices.

Just don’t forget that all vices do harm in the end.

Marty Helle is a senior in English and journalism from Lyle, Minnesota. He is the editor in chief of the Daily.