The Concord Monitor says backers of expanded gambling in New Hampshire are trying to buy votes by adding more and more casinos to the package.

There was some logic, albeit not much, to the gambling proponents’ original plan to permit slot machines at the state’s four struggling race tracks.

At least the tracks, one of which has since closed, had a history of operating a limited gaming operation, and they were already regulated by the state. But racetracks are an anachronism in the age of online gambling, and they’re dying out. Slot machines would save the racetracks, the proponents argued, though except for the low-wage jobs they provide, there’s no more reason to save racetracks than there would be to save video rental stores.

When promises of abundant new state revenue and thousands of jobs didn’t do the trick, gambling proponents sweetened the offer to permit casino-style gambling at two sites in the economically depressed North Country. Then, after turning down a bid from the owners of a Hudson golf course to build a resort casino on their property last year, sponsors stuck the proposal in this year’s bill. Why Hudson? Why this golf course and these owners? Were they the only ones, until the Loudon racetrack’s owner chimed in, to ask lawmakers to smile on them?