Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511150085
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: E2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There's no evidence, their studies invariably show, that legalized gambling attracts increased crime, causes people to become compulsive gamblers, exploits lower-income citizens, ruins families or contributes in any way to a decline in social morality.
On the contrary, their studies conclude, gambling is one of the cleanest and most attractive industries around. It's all win-win - creating jobs, boosting tourism, generating millions in revenues for local and state governments.
But wait a minute. If all this is true, why should gambling interests object to bipartisan calls in Congress for an independent commission to assess gambling's nationwide impact? If the industry's own rosy findings are valid, what has it to fear?
So far, the industry hasn't offered a single good reason to oppose a national study.
Sorry, suggestions that it's all a ploy for politicians to cozy up to the religious right don't qualify as a good reason.
The proposal for this commission and accounting has been spearheaded in the House of Representatives by Frank Wolf, R-Va., and in the Senate by John Warner, R-Va., Paul Simon, D-Ill., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., among others. President Clinton has strongly endorsed it. If that supporters' lineup doesn't relieve it of fringe-agenda opprobrium, consider this:
Mainline churches have led the fight against state lotteries, pari-mutuel betting and casinos. The so-called religious right, organized for maximum political potency, has been less conspicuous probing the moral implications of legalized gambling than it has focusing on more divisive issues, such as abortion, prayer in schools and gay rights.
The Republicans and Democrats who say gambling's nationwide impact needs examination are on solid ground. Even leaving aside the get-something-for-nothing mentality this activity encourages, it's an industry that has enjoyed runaway growth and acceptance, and it's time to find out whether it deserves either.
In the past decade, legalized casino gambling has expanded into 23 states on Indian reservations and riverboats to become a huge enterprise. Virginia's legislature has resisted riverboat gambling so far, but who knows how long it can hold out against the come-hither siren of new jobs, new revenue and favors for compliant lawmakers?
Some 36 state governments, including Virginia's, have already succumbed to getting into the gambling business themselves. State-operated lotteries generate $34 billion in sales, and state governments increasingly depend on lottery profits to underwrite their budgets.
But all this pretty flow of money has a dark side, on which Congress needs to shine a bright light.
The gambling industry's argument that the proposed commission would infringe on states' rights is also foam-rubber dice. It would do nothing more than give states a source of information to use before making decisions on new gambling ventures. It would give them the odds before they place their bets.
by CNB