Legalized gambling has become a painless revenue stream that has enabled politicians to meet their budgets without raising taxes. 30 states considered gambling proposals in 2004.

Last year, after a long battle, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell finally got his proposal for 61,000 slots approved for racetracks and casinos. As other states have done with the lottery, he tied it to education, promoting his "Slots for tots."

In Maryland, Republican Gov. Bob Erlich is in a fever to get slots legalized. Erlich says his constituents have demonstrated that they want to gamble, "For too long Marylanders have paid for teachers and textbooks in West Virginia, New Jersey and Delaware."

It is often the case that politicians see their potential tax dollars drifting across the border to casinos and riverboats strategically placed to attract players from other states. Former Gov. Edwin Edwards walked through the parking lots of the casinos along Mississippi's gulf coast and counted the Louisiana license plates. Under pressure to support a riverboat in the Boston harbor, Mayor Tom Menino did the same thing at the Indian casinos in Connecticut.

The first state after Nevada to get hooked on gambling was New Jersey, with its Atlantic City casinos. The poster boy for New Jersey gambling on the week of my trip is Michael Sandberg, a Princeton senior, who plays online and has won $120,000 at poker. Sandberg is thinking of making a career of poker.