How Slots Revenue Estimates are Created

Slots proponents seem to have an unending list of things that slots money will do for Maryland. Schools, teachers, health care, bay clean-up, roads, urban renewal, higher education, and land preservation to name a few. But they will never show a single footnote, study, or mathematical underpinning for how this is supposed to work. And if you want an accounting of the costs (lost revenues, failed businesses, homelessness, domestic violence, etc.) you can forget it. They refuse to acknowledge any of it.

Meanwhile, the experts (like Moody's Investor Services and others) call these propaganda-like revenue numbers "overly optimistic" and worse.

I have often wondeded about how the pro side comes up with their ever-growing figures, but now I know. Sometimes you need Dilbert to provide enlightenment: