My nominee for the stupidest government to pursue gambling has to be Mississippi. The state had a beautiful little stretch of pristine Gulf Coast, but when the powers that be decided that they needed casinos, they required them to be floating, like casinos on riverboats. The casinos bought up prime Gulf Coast beachfront, floated the actual gambling part of the hotel/casino complex, and ruined the beach in the process.
They should have required the boats to actually move up and down the river while gambling took place