Revenue from table games in Pennsylvania was up 7.4 percent in May compared to the same month in 2011, boosted in part by a second full month of play at the state's newest casino.
Comparisons of the 10 casinos open both in May 2011 and May 2012 show a more modest 3.1 percent increase in revenues.
Those are the numbers.
And no matter how you slice and dice them, they still don't show anything close to fulfillment of the promises made by the Rendell administration when state-sanctioned gambling was being pushed on the Legislature and citizens of Pennsylvania.
Surely you remember those promises. Gambling revenues were going to be so large they would sharply reduce if not eliminate school property taxes due to the money that was going to be pumped into education budgets.
Several years later, almost all of our region's school districts are struggling annually with their budgets due to revenue shortages, several are raising taxes and none of them are on secure long-term footing.
The impact of this much ballyhooed gambling for education proposal is pretty hard to notice.
And it won't be getting better if some revenue trends at the casinos are an indicator.
Harrah's in Chester saw a more than 12 percent drop in revenue comparing May 2011 to May 2012.
Other casinos saw increases. But it's impossible to argue that the gambling proposal has done what it was touted to do significantly cut school taxes.
Gambling is a fun activity if done responsibly by people who can afford it. But it never should have been sold as and never will be a budgetary panacea for the costs of public school education in the state.
