ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090102
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
IT IS NO SECRET that Virginia has been targeted by well-heeled Las Vegas and Atlantic City influence-peddlers as their new gambling haven.
Casino-gambling interests spent more than $1.1 million during the past two years in their effort to bring riverboat or dockside gambling to the commonwealth. Virginia, which is known for its beautiful beaches, mountains and historic sites, would become the newest state to have slot machines and card tables if gambling proponents get their way.
Virginians are concerned about the political influence wielded by the gambling interests that promise much but rarely deliver. When they do deliver, it is usually in the form of increased crime, political corruption, suicides, bankruptcies, cannibalization of businesses and family breakups. This is not what Virginia needs.
Ironically, gambling lobbyists' main competition may be the commonwealth itself. The concern about gambling is heightened when the state is pushing this pernicious pastime. The Virginia Lottery is seeking to put casino-style keno games in neighborhoods throughout the commonwealth. The 1996-1998 budget as introduced by Gov. George Allen projected raising $75.3 million from new lottery games. Keno, an instant-win casino-style game that requires a video terminal, is reported to be highly addictive. It would probably be located in restaurants and bars, shopping centers, and government offices throughout Virginia.
Valerie Lorenz, executive director of the Maryland Compulsive Gambling Center, calls keno the "crack cocaine of legalized gambling." This analogy is flawed, however, because, unlike crack cocaine, keno is legitimized by the state. The state is becoming a predator and, like a predator, keno will pick the weakest and most vulnerable among us to feed the appetite of the Virginia government.
Revenues from keno are not "painless," and state policy-makers should be careful not to succumb to the same lure of elusive easy money that entraps the compulsive and pathological gambler.
Maryland, which runs about 3,000 keno outlets in addition to a state lottery, bears incredible costs due to compulsive gambling. In 1990, the Maryland Task Force on Gambling Addiction found that Maryland's 50,000 compulsive gamblers cost the state $1.5 billion per year in lost work productivity, in monies stolen and embezzled, and in state taxes not paid. Also, the total cumulative indebtedness of Maryland's compulsive gamblers is $4 billion.
There are also human costs to increasing the availability of gambling outlets. Within two years of legalizing video-lottery terminals, the tiny province of Nova Scotia, Canada, went from zero to 12 chapters of Gamblers Anonymous. Outraged over widely publicized reports of broken marriages and wrecked lives, Nova Scotians forced the government to remove 2,400 machines. The government, which should be the protector of society's most vulnerable, should not prey on its citizens in order to make a quick buck. Creating a class of addicted gamblers to fuel greater government spending is not wise policy. Moreover, it may cost the government more in the long run when it then must deal with the problems it has created.
In addition to the newly addicted gamblers the Virginia Lottery would create, the newest addict will be the state government itself. As revenues from keno fill state coffers, the Virginia Lottery will be under increasing pressure to maintain the "painless" stream of cash by enticing new players with more sophisticated and targeted advertising. New casino-style games will be demanded, more machines will be installed in unacceptable locations, and more Virginians will become addicted. In the case of restaurants and bars, keno will be combined with alcohol, thereby becoming even more addictive and damaging.
It would be unfortunate for Virginia to become like other states that have created numerous problems by legalizing gambling, and it would be even more reprehensible if the Virginia government was the purveyor of such problems. According to a front page article from the Dec. 3, 1995, Minneapolis edition of the Star Tribune, "legalized gambling in Minnesota has created a broad new class of addicts, victims and criminals whose activities are devastating families and costing taxpayers and businesses millions of dollars."
The article stated that "[t]housands have ruined themselves financially, some have committed crimes, and a handful have killed themselves. Thousands more will live for years on the edge of bankruptcy, sometimes working two or three jobs to pay off credit card debt."
Renowned columnist William Safire has called "state-sponsored gambling a banana republic abomination that undermines national values." I believe state-sponsored keno would undermine Virginia values and cause irreparable harm. What's more, it would open the door to the gambling interests poised to sink their claws into Virginia's profitable family-tourism trade. Virginia's character would change forever, and that is not worth such a big gamble.
Frank R. Wolf, a Republican from Fairfax County, represents Virginia's 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: RICHARD MILLHOLLAND/Los Angeles Timesby CNB