The NDP's go-gamble ad blitz is a shameless tax grab rich in hypocrisy, steeped in sleaze but consistent with the government's need for a spending addiction fix. What's new Unforgivable is how the NDP dress up the gambling ads as harmless family fun.

"Go for the fun of it!" and "Get your fill!" reads the NDP gambling billboards, designed to drum up business for the province's two flagship casinos. The messaging suggest that if you ever had any misgivings about betting your family's savings on the roulette table you can put your mind at ease. The mandarins of moral authority within the hallowed chambers of the NDP caucus have issued a new edict. Gambling is now government-sanctioned family fun. "Bring the kids along" is all that's missing.

But where's the truth in advertising If nothing else, you could at least respect the honesty of a government ad campaign that told it like it was. Say, for example, "Surrender your will and wallets to the VLT. Resistance is futile." Instead, the NDP has the nerve to pass gambling off as some kind of self-gratifying virtue. Not totally surprising given the moral relativism that has infected the Legislature.

The ads would have you forget about any social disorders like gambling addictions or the trail of suicides that lead from the casino floor to the carbon-monoxide-filled garage. The ads also disregard the red flags raised by the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry that rated Winnipeg as the country's "pathological gambling" capital. Undoubtedly the ads will ratchet up Manitoban's gambling compulsion even more - a development that once shook the political piety of the opposition NDP a few years back.

Since then, the NDP learned a few tricks. If you can't win a hand by squeezing more income or sales taxes out of middle class Manitobans, then double-down on the most vulnerable low-income elements in society through an all out offensive on sin taxes.

Imagine the Finance Minister listing off an inventory of tax and fee increases. Hike cigarette taxes Check. Cash-in on Sunday liquor sales Check. Raise auto licensing and registration fees Check. Con the chattel into more gambling Check.

The blatant gaming tax grab and tasteless ads now call into question the NDP's right to own casinos at all, never mind to monopolize gambling in Manitoba.

Back in 1989, when Winnipeg became home to the first permanent casino in Canada, common wisdom held that society was better served with government monopolized gambling. Private sector casinos were considered gouache but government-dominated gambling retained an air of respectability. The naivete held that only government could resist the temptation to go full throttle in efforts to push gambling on its citizens. Wrong.

No longer the oracle of righteousness, why should government muscle the private sector out of the gambling action

The NDP ad blitz removes any reservations in my mind of their ability to successfully compete on the sleaze and cheese index once dominated by private Los Vegas casinos. As unabashed gambling junkies who broke trust with the public, the NDP forfeits all moral claims to run and monopolize casinos in the province. The jig is up. It's time for the NDP to cash in its chips.