THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, October 31, 1995              TAG: 9510310327
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

WARNER SEEKS STUDY OF GAMBLING HE SAYS GAMING HAS SPREAD FROM 1 STATE TO 23 IN 2 DECADES.

Sen. John Warner called Monday for a national commission to study legalized gambling and warned that America needs a wake-up call to the growth of the U.S. casino industry.

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 past couple of years but has not approved the measure.

``We've done the right thing,'' Warner said at a news conference with Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th and a co-sponsor of legislation in Congress to study the issue. ``Let's talk about the rest of America.''

Gambling interests contend he 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.''

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.

``We don't need gambling casinos to come in that potentially can destroy families, that can cannibalize business . . . and can then bring crime and corruption,'' Wolf said.

Warner said the gambling industry is growing twice as fast as U.S. manufacturing.

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.

Mountjoy said Virginia's riverboat casino legislation calls for state and local referendums ``for a very limited number of highly regulated cruising riverboats,'' as well as incentives to build the boats in Virginia. by CNB