Gambling commissioners find some agreement on restrictions

By Tom Strode

WASHINGTON (BP)–Members of a national commission studying
gambling recently expressed agreement on a number of restrictions
it may recommend in its report in June.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which has both
gambling proponents and foes among its nine members, indicated
support for several recommendations to discourage the expansion
of the practice in the United States. Consensus on the proposals,
which have not received final approval, was expressed during an
important meeting of the panel’s report subcommittee in
Washington. The deliberations included not only the three
subcommittee members but most of the other commissioners as well.

Among the recommendations receiving support were:

— A minimum age of 21 years should be set for participants in
all forms of gambling.

— ATM and credit machines should be removed from the floors of
casinos, although debit machines would still be permitted.

— Warnings of gambling’s addictive potential should be posted in
all casinos and on all game equipment.

— State-operated lotteries should reduce their dependence on
low-income players.

— States should discourage or prohibit convenience gambling,
which includes lotteries, or place a moratorium on its expansion.

— Lotteries should not include casino-style games.

— Separate regulatory agencies should be established for
government-sponsored lotteries.

— Lotteries should contribute funding to programs for problem
gamblers.

It also was confirmed that the commission plans to call for a ban
on Internet gambling.

Kay Coles James, commission chairwoman, cautioned commissioners
and observers at various points during the two-day meeting of the
tentativeness of the proposals, once saying all recommendations
were “still open, still debatable.”

The full commission has two more meetings scheduled before its
report is released June 18.

On the last afternoon of the meeting, James told Baptist Press
the process had “gone a little better than I had anticipated than
it was going to go. And as issues have been raised, it has been
amazing to me the amount of consensus that did exist. I think in
the last two days we’ve only identified six or seven areas of
disagreement, and some of those are rather minor. Coming into
this process I think we were all concerned that there were going
to be major areas” of division.

One of those subjects of disagreement involved the expansion of
slot machines and other casino-style devices into racetracks.
Some horse tracks have brought in such gambling devices in recent
years in an attempt to curtail the dramatic decline in their
share of the gambling market during the last 25 years. While
horse and dog tracks have lost ground, casinos and lotteries have
grown in their business.

James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family and the panel’s
leading gambling opponent, offered a recommendation calling for
casino-style devices not to be placed at horse tracks. While
three other members concurred, John Wilhelm and William Bible
opposed the proposal, arguing the site already was set aside for
gambling. Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees International Union, said he opposed such
“micro-level recommendations” but also said states that permit
such expansion at tracks should face the fact they are legalizing
casinos. Bible, now a member of the Nevada Ethics Commission, was
chairman of the state’s Gaming Control Board when he was
appointed to the gambling panel.

Commissioner Richard Leone said he thinks they should let tracks
die in response to the market and American culture. When it comes
to gambling, Americans have a “national ADD [attention deficit
disorder],” and horse racing takes longer to determine if a
gambler wins, he said. America has “become a nation increasingly
of gamblers,” Leone said.

Leone is president of The Century Foundation and a former New
Jersey treasurer. James is dean of the Robertson School of
Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Wilhelm
also has been chief negotiator for his union’s 45,000-member
local in Las Vegas, Nev., the last 10 years.

Disagreements such as gambling at racetracks will come down to a
vote among the commissioners, James said. She told BP she would
be surprised if supporters of Dobson’s proposal “didn’t prevail
on that one.”

Other recommendations on which consensus failed to develop
included:

— States should ban legal wagering on amateur sports.

— Severe limitations should be placed on in-house credit
extensions by casinos.

— Paycheck cashing should be prohibited at casinos.

— All gambling establishments should have self-exclusion
policies allowing problem gamblers to request they be barred from
playing.

— Public schools should include gambling in classroom
discussions of addictive behaviors.

Even where it does not make recommendations, the commission can
signal to public-policy makers it “is concerned in these areas,”
James said. The panel can raise, “if not a red flag, a yellow”
one, she said.

Dobson proposed most of the recommendations.

It is “absolutely essential that we have someone to do what Jim
[Dobson] is doing in terms of bringing the issues to the table,”
James said, “and he’s done an excellent job of that, and I think
as a direct result of his being on this commission it’s going to
be quite different from what it would have been.”

Joanna Franklin, executive vice president of the National Council
on Problem Gambling, observed part of the proceedings and said
she was “significantly encouraged.”

“I’ve heard some of the commissioners saying things that prove to
me they’ve done some homework and have been listening and
investigating and reading … even if the recommendations are not
strong, even if they’re not exactly what we would like to see,
even if they are ignored by Congress, [the] president, whomever,
it’s still brought attention to the problem,” Franklin told BP.

The commissioners were united in their disappointment with the
lack of response by casinos, especially Indian ones, to a
questionnaire they were given by the panel. About 600 commercial
casinos received the survey, and about 130, including the top 25
money-makers, had responded, a commission staff member said. Of
the more than 140 tribal casinos solicited, about 12 had
completed the questionnaire, he said.

It “sounds like we’re being strong-armed,” Dobson said. The panel
has agreed tribal gambling is a “very significant phenomenon,” he
said, but it is facing a final report “with no insider
information. That doesn’t sound adequate to me.” He encouraged
the commission to be willing to use its subpoena power to gain
the information.

James said she fears the use of subpoenas will not achieve much.
Perhaps another commission to study only Indian gambling is
needed, she said.

The other members attending the April 7-8 meeting were Paul
Moore, a radiologist from Pascagoula, Miss., and Leo McCarthy,
former lieutenant governor of California. Terrence Lanni, chief
executive officer of MGM Grand Inc., a gambling, entertainment
and hotel company based in Las Vegas, and Robert Loescher,
president of Sealaska Corp. and a member of the Tlingit Tribe of
Alaska, were unable to attend.

James, Leone and Moore are members of the report subcommittee.

The panel and its report were called for in legislation passed by
Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996. The report will
be the first national one issued since 1976.

While the commission’s remaining meetings will be in Washington,
some of the other meetings in its two-year study have been in the
form of field trips to such places as Las Vegas; Atlantic City,
N.J.; Biloxi, Miss.; and Boston.

[Baptist Press 14 April 1999]