Few elected officials have the smarts or backbone to stand up to the spread of the casino cancer. That’s why kudos are in order for the Foxboro selectmen for rejecting a casino in their Massachusetts town.

Usually Big Gambling wins and the taxpayers lose. But Foxboro’s elected officials were not impressed with idea of Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn bringing a casino to their rural town. The move shows that many residents in Massachusetts are not excited by the backroom legalization of casinos that was hatched by Gov. Deval Patrick and state House and Senate leaders.

What comes next in Massachusetts is uncertain. Will other towns and lawmakers become emboldened and stand up to the casino interests and all of the social and economic ills that come with gambling?

Nevada gambling regulators are moving to legalize Internet gambling across the state, a development that may trigger similar efforts in other casino states.

The measure would allow Internet poker just to Nevada residents only. But as The Wall Street Journal reports, the move is “designed to position the state to move quickly to become the center of a lucrative new sector of the gambling industry should Congress pass one of several laws overturning the ban on Internet wagering, making the state the de-facto national licensing body.”

Internet gambling at the federal level would be a game-changing event that would expand the reach of gambling to every home and mobile phone in the country. The move could lead to a sharp rise in problem gambling as people dig themselves deeper into the debt in the quiet of their home. This would be a very short-sighted change in public policy.

The casino industry doesn’t like to divulge much about what it is up to, but this report from a high-profile gambling firm offers some insights into what is coming. Some of it requires reading between the lines to fill in the real impact, but other parts are more straightforward especially when it comes to pushing government leaders to do the casino industry’s bidding.

For example Penn National expects gaming operators will exert pressure to lower tax rates in high-tax markets to better compete against neighboring states. That means less money in state coffers – a big reason casinos were legalized in the first place.

Efforts to legalize casinos will continue in ”casino-reluctant states” such as Kentucky, New Hampshire and Texas. Efforts to add casinos will heat up in major states where gaming is limited, such as in Florida, Illinois and New York. Translation: casinos will continue to spread across the country and operators will lobby states to lower their take from gambling addicts and suckers, er, patrons who enjoy the gaming experience.

Other trends include a push by casino operators to open new locations oversees in an effort to maintain growth. Increased competition in Las Vegas. There will be a big push to pressure the government to allow sports betting across the country. More states will privatize lotteries in an effort to grow that addictive and predatory business.Look for more smaller convenience casinos and Internet cafes to open. Casino operators don’t want to build lavish and costly casinos when a small, local, cheesy gambling hall will do the trick. Of course, the other big game-changing trend will be efforts to push Internet gambling.

In a nutshell: the gambling industry is on a roll and look for more casinos coming to a town near you. Of course, there is no mention about the economic and social costs of turning the country into one big rolling craps game.