Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
During the past two decades, gambling has spread from one state - Nevada - to 23, Warner said. Even the Virginia legislature has looked at riverboat casinos in the last couple of years but has not approved it.
``We've done the right thing,'' Warner said at a news conference with Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Fairfax County, a co-sponsor of legislation in Congress to study the issue. ``Let's talk about the rest of America. We need the facts.''
Gambling interests contend that the commission is a screen for a moral crusade to eliminate a legitimate business.
``Gaming is an issue that states can decide for themselves,'' said Tom Mountjoy, a partner in the Richmond riverboat Annabel Lee. ``With all the real problems in this country, one would hope Virginia congressmen could find a more important issue than how people spend their discretionary entertainment dollars.''
Mountjoy accused Warner, who faces a Senate renomination battle next year, of playing to ``the far right element'' of the GOP.
Wolf said he's convinced that most people don't want gambling because it creates crime problems and takes away money from other businesses. Two years after Mississippi allowed gambling, he said, the total take in casinos exceeded the state's taxable retail sales.
``Can you imagine the number of kids that didn't get shoes?'' Wolf asked. ``... It would be very difficult for Busch Gardens or [Colonial] Williamsburg to exist next to the gambling casinos.''
He also said several states that have allowed gambling have suffered problems with public corruption, including bribery.
Warner said the gambling industry is growing twice as fast as U.S. manufacturing. He suggested that gambling interests were afraid of what a national study might show.
Warner and Wolf said the commission, over the course of an 18-month study, would develop an objective database that states and cities could use to consider whether to allow casinos.
by CNB