No legalized gambling in Hawai'i for at least another year

The following is an article from yesterday's Honolulu Star Bulletin: Lawmakers fold; poker bill fails to advance

A couple points facts I didn't know before:

• Hawai'i and Utah are the only two states without legalized forms of gambling
• All Internet poker sites are currently located outside of the country

I do not have a strong opinion for or against legalizing poker and/or gambling in Hawai'i. To be honest, I do not know too much about the topic, so I am not sure what effect it would have on the state/island. I can see both sides of the argument (for: would bring in much-needed money to the state and could attract more tourism to help the economy; against: would introduce an undesirable element to our islands and have a detrimental effect on the tourist industry).

Many people in Hawai'i like to gamble - so many people from Hawai'i travel to Las Vegas to gamble that Hawaiian Airlines and the California Hotel have special deals for Hawai'i residents. Therefore, I wonder if legalizing gambling would really help to bring in enough revenue to offset detrimental effects... A World Series of Poker in Hawai'i might have a positive impact, but what if the majority of people playing poker in the islands were island locals? In order to inject money into the Hawai'i economy, people from outside Hawai'i would need to travel to the islands to play poker. Are enough people willing to travel all the way to Hawai'i to play poker when they can play in other locations closer to, more convenient, and less expensive for them?

As I said before, I probably need to gain more knowledge on this issue in order to make a better evaluation, but these are just some of my thoughts as of right now.