ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701100024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
KENO'S NUMBER is up. No Keno in Virginia. Not now. Lot later. Not ever.
Virginia Lottery officials have wisely decided the state will not sponsor the casino-style numbers game now - indeed, will not until the state's elected officials give it their approval. Therefore, lottery revenues will remain flat, the director warns.
Of course, when future budget-makers are in desperate enough need for a fix, "There's always that four-letter word - keno - out there. If that revenue is needed, keno is always available."
Which argues for a ban on the game.
Keno - whose computer-generated numbers can be changed and displayed on video screens every few minutes, all day, every day - has been called the crack cocaine of legalized gambling. Constantly dangling before players the alluring, if remote, chance to win, the game is designed specifically to do what Lottery Director Penelope Kyle suggests: rake in more money for the state - as it wracks up greater losses for citizens.
For many, playing might amount to an affordable evening's entertainment. For others, it is the start of an addiction that can lead to ruin: bankruptcy, family breakup, crime, even suicide. In the small province of Nova Scotia, Canada, 12 chapters of Gamblers Anonymous were established in two years - where there had been none - once video-lottery terminals were allowed.
And you don't have to play to lose. Legal, casino-style gambling often is accompanied by crime, political corruption and damage to other, legitimate businesses.
If Virginians decide they want to say "no" to all of this, forever, what do they risk? Well, lottery profits will remain flat - around $342 million a year - or perhaps even drop.
In the near future, that could hurt the state's chance of bringing a major league baseball team to Northern Virginia, since legislators reportedly are reluctant to commit stagnant lottery profits to pay for building a stadium.
So what?
The state shouldn't be making the capital investment for a private, profit-making outfit anyway, whether the revenue were to come from levied taxes or a voluntary one. The state's ill-gotten gains could be put to better use, such as education.
And, in the years ahead, if legislators decide, unwisely, that they do want to subsidize a baseball team and stadium, why would they have to resort to the pretense of getting the money from the lottery? Do they think that reduces their accountability for spending public funds in a fungible budget?
There always will be some project to tempt Virginia to sink itself further into the easy money of gambling. This session, the General Assembly should pass Bedford Del. Lacey Putney's bill to ban keno, and break itself of an unhealthy dependence on skinning suckers.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB