Legalized gambling seldom moves forward unless there’s a financial crisis, leading government officials to lust for a new source of tax revenue.

Another winning argument for more gambling is that everyone else is doing it, so why stand in the way of the “progress” we can achieve with more gaming?

Amid the current financial crisis, a leading congressional Democrat claims that it’s time to revoke the American ban on Internet gambling.

Adding to the pressure for bringing this sick business to the home and workplace is a European Union complaint that the American ban on Internet gambling is a violation of free-trade principles.

Congress adopted the ban in 2006, making it illegal for financial institutions to accept credit card transactions for online gambling.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has now proposed dropping the ban, as if Americans don’t have enough opportunities to run up more debt to the gambling industry.

“The head-in-the-sand approach to this industry will continue to prove deleterious to international relations,” added Alfonse D’Amato, chairman of the Poker Players Alliance.

So we need more gambling, through the Internet, to improve the American image abroad?

With millions of workers losing jobs and families losing homes, America doesn’t need more legal gambling now.

If reader response is any measure, the demand for Indiana history books exceeds the supply.

Last week I asked for more state history books, especially readable biographies. Plenty of readers agree with that sentiment.

Reader Beth Van Vorst Gray thinks I didn’t name enough of the good books that are available, including Ralph Gray’s biography of Elwood Haynes, the Kokomo carmaker. She also cites Gray’s biography of Meredith Nicholson and James Madison’s textbook, “The Indiana Way.”

John Pratt, who teaches social studies at North Decatur High School near Greensburg, thinks we need a Web site devoted to state history.

State Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, wants state government to take a more pro-active approach to Indiana history, with a new agency, the Department of Heritage and Cultural Resources. His legislation, adopted by the Senate, would bring existing agencies under one umbrella.

This writer also needs to brush up on state history. I apologize to everyone who has ever lived in Elwood for putting Wendell Willkie’s birthplace in Rushville (his wife’s birthplace). I should have known better.

Willkie, a new face in national politics who had never run for office, attracted a crowd of 150,000 to Elwood on a hot August day in 1940 after he won the Republican nomination.

His charisma and charm were not enough to overcome the master of presidential campaigning, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term the year before America entered World War II.