As Predicted...

Once again, that silly little thing known as the "free market" shows that the market itself is the best means to effect change:

• The struggling economy has dealt a bad hand to the nation's usually robust gambling business, a downturn made even worse in Illinois, where the state's nearly year-old smoking ban has proved unhealthy to casinos.
  
  Among those paying the steepest prices are local governments, charities and their clients, who have come to rely on gambling tax receipts.
  
  The big gambling states— Nevada, New Jersey and Mississippi —are off 5 percent to 7 percent in casino revenue. But the picture is worst in Illinois, where casino revenue is down 20.3 percent this year.
  
  Gambling officials estimate that the state will get between $150 million and $160 million less in taxes, most of it earmarked for education. Statewide, the eight communities with casinos will see $20 million to $25 million less than they took in last year, officials estimate.

And where oh where will the government make up those gross tax receipts? Tax hikes? But that will further stagnate the economy, wouldn't it? Yep. It's called a "vicious cycle" and we predicted it here months ago when the nanny-statism started getting completely out of control along with the monstrous tax hikes. Now let's see how much Chicago tavern receipts are falling due to the smoking ban. People are shopping elsewhere. People are spending elsewhere. Daley is selling everything that isn't nailed down, and when he sells all the revenue generating apparatus, there won't be a thing left as the middle class flees Chicago a la Detroit in the 1970s.