“My gambling days are over,” says William Bennett. Right. And I will never eat another doughnut.

Fact is, humans are weak and temptations are strong. Gambling is one of the strongest. Which is why Bennett, the author of every virtue best seller except the Bible, found himself losing $8 million yet claiming he did it to “relax.” If it is truly relaxing to lose $8 million, it must feel like a day at the spa to go bankrupt.

While I wish Bennett well on his withdrawal (from gambling, that is, not the bank), in truth, he is living in the wrong country. Gambling is exploding in the U.S. — on riverboats, restaurants, reservations — and the gambling industry is only too happy to addict us all.

As Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Assn. and former Republican national chairman, cheerfully notes: “There are only three states that don’t have some legal form of gambling: Utah, Hawaii and Tennessee. And Tennessee will have a lottery before the year is over.”

What happened to the anti-gambling laws of just a generation ago? Where are the lawmakers who were supposed to protect us from — hokey as it sounds — vice? They went out with a dollar and a scheme.

As states hit tough economic times, one by one they followed New Hampshire’s 1972 lead and legalized lotteries. Like gamblers down on their luck, they were hoping for a quick fix.

When that fix didn’t materialize, they chased their losses. Addicted to gambling revenues and yet still starved for cash, they began to offer more lotteries, then scratch-off games, megamillions and, in some states, slots and casinos. Next thing you know — baby needs a new school system! — they’re greenlighting the kind of gambling that only 30 years ago was illegal everywhere but Nevada.

And just like that, we became a nation of players. And where is the moral queasiness?

Same place as Bennett’s shame: nowhere. Thanks to the ubiquity of betting and state-sponsored ads, gambling has become a normal part of life. It has lost its creepy connotations.

“They call it ‘gaming’ now, which is a focus-group, poll-driven name,” says Scott Harshbarger, former head of Common Cause, the group that tracks how much money lobbyists spend to influence government.

And — big surprise — the gambling/gaming lobby is spending double what it spent just five years ago to grease the way for gambling. In Washington, it actually spends as much as the health and electricity lobbies.

If gambling actually delivered on its promise — ensuring solvency for cash-strapped states — it might make sense to give in to the sin. But it doesn’t. Good, solid companies don’t like locating near casinos. And dollars lost on slots don’t get to local businesses. Just ask James Chappell, mayor of Oneida, N.Y. His city of 11,000 is down the road from the very successful Turning Stone Casino.

“In terms of people patronizing businesses after they’ve left the casino — a restaurant or bar — it doesn’t happen,” says Chappell. “They lose their money and go home.”

More and more local governments call this sound economic policy. Bennett calls it relaxing. I call it a travesty.