Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260089
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Horse racing and the lottery captured both the imagination and the votes of Virginians. But there's a difference. A day at the track seems positively wholesome when compared with such indoor sports as dice, roulette and blackjack. And many who saw themselves risking a few bucks to win millions in a state-run lottery requiring no skill whatsoever could never see themselves darkening the door of a real gambling den.
To overcome such prejudices, Jones would offer localities far from the waters' edge a cut of the action. This might be earmarked for education, as some thought lottery proceeds would be. But there's really no practical way to earmark funds flowing into the public pot.
But the pot would be huge. There are at least 2 million people living within easy driving distance of Hampton Roads. Thanks to thorough reporting by The Richmond Times-Dispatch, we have a pretty good idea of the taxes that would be collected in Virginia from casino wagering.
There are 13 floating casinos in Illinois producing almost $500 million a year in direct gaming taxes. The state takes 75 percent, leaving 25 percent for localities where the boats are based. Joliet, which taps the vast Chicago Metro area, gets the lion's share of players, and Virginia has nothing comparable to that. Joliet got $50 million for local coffers in 1994 and expects to pay off its entire bonded debt by 2001. Peoria, located in a region of no great population density, has a single riverboat casino and raised some $7.5 million in local taxes in 1994.
Obviously, many people are counted more than once. But more than 18 million people visited a casino in Illinois during 1994, wagering $6 billion. For 1993, the Illinois Gaming Board reported the average loss per player per visit at $56.71.
While estimating a direct Virginia tax take from casino gambling could be nothing more than a wild guess, a figure of $150 million seems reasonable. If localities where the pleasure palaces were docked kept 25 percent, it would mean $35 million for "pressing" local needs. But this would could hardly amount to much more than 5 percent of existing levels of local spending.
Proponents will argue, of course, that the gaming tax would be only a part of the picture, and probably the smaller part. They will point to the famous "multiplier effect" from all the new jobs created and ancillary services required. This will be seen lifting the total economic impact to a much grander level of munificence.
Here we enter the domain of hypocrisy and hyperbole on both sides. If casinos are a good thing, why limit them to coastal waters? Do they intend to sail about? Doubtful. All we're doing is borrowing a colorful page from America's past to put a nice patina on extending the gambling mania. If Norfolk has it, why not Richmond or Alexandria?
Since the lottery is red hot and roaring, why draw the line? Blackjack at least requires a respectable level of skill. And no self-respecting casino would dream of a house percentage anywhere close to what the lottery takes. In craps, players can even bet with the house against the shooters, though they can hardly expect to be popular at the table. In American roulette, the house percentage is under 8 percent, compared with close to 50 percent in the state lottery.
In recent testimony before the General Assembly, law-enforcement officials from Iowa and Illinois said they hadn't been bothered by the arrival of casinos. In fact, they gave it pretty much a clean bill of health. Economists present a different picture. One study purported to show that if casinos increase the incidence of "problem gamblers" by only one-half of 1 percent, the "social cost" to government and private employers will exceed the tax revenues.
But the experience of Atlantic City, N.J., might be more germane to the introduction of casino gambling in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hampton. Once a great resort, Atlantic City had sadly declined in the years before the introduction of legal gambling in the late '70s. It has been a mixed blessing.
According to information used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in opposing the 1994 gambling referendum in that state, Atlantic City experienced an explosive growth in crime between 1977 and 1990. This would be especially noteworthy in view of the fact that the population of Atlantic City declined by one-fifth in the same period.
Las Vegas seems to prove that gambling will bring prosperity to a community when it attracts money made elsewhere that would not otherwise find its way. When locals play, money that would be spent for other goods and services is simply diverted to the casinos. While the fleecing of visitors would enlarge the pie, to the extent these are Virginians, Norfolk's gain might be Norton's loss. But as casinos proliferate, it will be harder for one region of the country to benefit at the expense of another.
It's hypocritical for a majority of Virginians to say it's OK for the state to do everything it can to induce people to play the lottery (or bingo) and not allow the far fairer wagering of the casino, where even if you're broke you can enjoy the unfolding spectacle. But that seems to be exactly what they're prepared to say.
On balance, they will be right. It is the engrossing spectacle of the casino, and the far more engrossing character of the play that makes it more insidious than the lottery.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
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