Legalized Gambling

Don’t count on the national trend legalized “gambling’s fall,” as predicted by I. Nelson Rose (Op-Ed Page, Aug. 17), unless he possesses a crystal ball which no one else has.

Rose states “Legal gambling’s problem is that it has become too respectable.” When has “too respectable” become a problem?

Of the present growth in legalized gambling, he adds, “The pendulum will swing back; in America, gambling eventually self-destructs” and concludes, “the crash will be triggered by scandals.” His arguments make little sense.

I believe that well-regulated legalized gambling operations have reached a new plateau of public acceptance never before believed possible; references to historic cycles no longer are applicable.

With the aid of modern data-processing, rigid operating and accounting controls have been placed over all forms of gaming operations during the past 15 years. As a result, operators (both public and private) as well as customers and governmental authorities can be more certain that every dollar of income and outgo is rigidly accounted for.

While possibilities do exist for evils and excesses in any form of societal activity (including banks and equities markets), how many more evils might exist without the controls and limitations on legalized games that are in place today?

Rose’s principal target of criticism is state lotteries.

What Rose neglects to report is that current gross revenues of all 29 state lotteries (roughly $17 billion) is but a small percentage of the estimated $240 billion that Americans wager each year on games of chance, which includes a “guesstimate” of up to $100 billion in illegal sports gambling. Of the lotteries’ $17 billion revenues, over $6 billion was turned over to the sponsoring jurisdictions as free-and-clear income.

As with any business, success is judged by annual profits. Take the California lottery: Back in 1987, concluding its first nine months of operations, the lottery produced nearly $1.8 billion in sales and $693 million in net income to the state. Then, in its second full 12 months, revenue dropped to $1.4 billion and net income to $504 million. Under new management, in its most recent fiscal year (ended June 30), it recorded roughly $2.6 billion in revenue, producing approximately $1 billion for the state’s coffers, which by law is designated for educational purposes.

SAUL F. LEONARD, National Partner, Leisure Time and Gaming Industries