As the state budget deadline approaches, members of the political class are pushing a really dubious idea: Continuing to widen the number and scope of gambling operations in New York by allowing betting on professional sports to go on in a handful of upstate casinos, plus the ones on Native American reservations.

That's a bad bet that ultimately will cost New York more than we can gain.

A few years ago, when the Cuomo Administration pushed through the creation of three new upstate casinos, critics of the idea, including me, predicted the new gambling havens would eat into each other's business and flop.

That's exactly what happened, according to a recent story in the upstate Times Union newspaper. The paper recently reported on the fate of those three casinos and found, "as the venues enter their third year, the casinos are still coming up about $203 million short of what they told the state they would be making when they applied for their licenses starting in 2014." At one of the casinos, it was 57 percent less than what the casino said it would be making in year one.

Underestimating the revenue from gambling, and the tax benefits to New York, is becoming a bad habit. In 2017, state and county officials promised that a new casino in the Albany area would provide enough money to support an 18 percent cut in property taxes. Ten months later: Schenectady homeowners only got a measly 1 percent reduction. What was sold to the public as $21 million in casino revenue for eight Albany-area counties turned out to be only $7.6 million, a shortfall of more than 64 percent.

Not only are we underestimating the revenue benefits of casinos, we too often ignore the costs. An estimated 35 to 50 percent of all gambling revenue comes from problem gamblers, people whose addiction has been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — psychiatry's central listing of behavioral disorders — since 1980. The addiction affects an estimated 2 to 3 percent of Americans, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. In New York, that translates into 300,000 to 400,000 people.

We know some of the folks caught up in the problem. Craig Carton, a former sports broadcaster, could spend as much as 45 years in prison when he comes up for sentencing next month. He was convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud in connection with a multi-million-dollar Ponzi Scheme that he devised, in part, to pay gambling debts.

And a few years ago, the dean of St. Johns University, Cecilia Chang, took her own life during her trial for allegedly embezzling $1 million from the school. Chang often called employees from a gambling suite at the Foxwoods Casino, asking for thousands to be wired to her, and, of course, lost to the casino.

And Travell Thomas, a champion poker player from the Buffalo area, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017 for running a $31 million debt-collection scam that defrauded thousands of people nationwide. He did it to cover gambling losses.

Next to these high-profile cases are a thousand lesser tragedies in and around every casino — families that lose their homes, their jobs, and squander their life savings. Problem gamblers are more likely to be involved in crime, substance abuse, and suicide. They should not be looked to as a source of tax revenue. And according to a recent report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, 22 of New York's 62 counties have no gambling treatment programs.

Here's the bottom line: New York has a lot of needs and a lot of ways to meet those needs. Let's make sure we do it honorably — without exploiting our neighbors, people who deserve our help.