news-record.com

I'm just not going for this:

"RALEIGH – As state officials are tallying the accounting books to determine how much money Dell Computers owes the state after accepting millions in economic incentives and then closing their facility and laying off 905 workers, the Entertainment Group of North Carolina says today a regulated and taxed video gaming industry could generate 6,000 new jobs in the state."

Yeah, the Entertainment Group of North Carolina is Johnny-on-the-spot. Losing Dell? No problem. We can do better by plugging into video gaming.

"A state regulated and taxed video gaming business could create up to 6,000 new jobs across North Carolina and generate up to $500 million in new revenue without raising taxes. And the video gaming industry isn’t asking for any state incentives."

So says a news release from EGNC.

I may need some help from Andy Brod on this, but I think video gaming as an economic development opportunity is a crock.

Where will the money come from to create 6,000 jobs?

It's easy to see where the money came from (besides incentives) to create jobs at the Dell plant. People throughout the country send money to Dell, Dell sends them computers. Because most of these customers lived outside North Carolina, the purchases represented net income for the state as a whole.

Somehow, I doubt many people will be coming from out of state to play video poker in North Carolina convenience stores. Most of the money feeding the machines will be North Carolina money. If it weren't spent on video gaming, it likely would be spent for other goods, services, entertainment or whatnot here in North Carolina. So what would be spent on video gaming would produce a gain for that industry but a loss for other enterprises and no overall net gain for North Carolina's economy. Likewise, new jobs related to video gaming would reduce employment by a similar number in other enterprises corresponding to the loss of revenue for other business.

The state could enact special taxes on video gaming to increase its own revenue. That's simple enough. But that's not likely to benefit the economy -- just the people or agencies who end up on the receiving end of state spending, at the expense of the people from whose pockets the tax is taken.

A lot of people are angry and upset about Dell right now. It's easy to exploit raw emotions with a pitch for some other scheme that promoters say will create jobs and produce an economic benefit.

Beware. Compared to video gaming, Dell was a good deal, at least while it lasted.