I’m not here to defend any politicians, but this is typical of sports teams and plenty of other large businesses. You see it everywhere, but it’s usually a large company promising jobs in exchange for tax incentives. The politicians then claim that they created jobs. Anyway, sports teams are always trying to get governments to buy stadiums. It pretty much amounts to a subsidy for sports fans at the expense of anything else taxes would go for (or lower taxes for everyone.)
And seriously… nobody is going to get riled up about having problems depositing to casinos. (Too many other things don’t excite people, either.) Nobody will repeal those laws because they are paternalistic. (When has that ever happened?) Everyone will have to wait until the large financial interests step in. They’ll still have a tough time. State lotteries see other gambling as a threat, and they should see it as a threat considering that their own payouts are dismal.