PERSPECTIVE ON GAMBLING : We All Lose on This Roll of the Dice : Big money is trying to sell legislators on casinos as family entertainment, a treacherous trend that cries for regulation.

Gambling suddenly is a hot issue. Amid furious debate in Sacramento, a measure to create a gambling regulatory commission was defeated on the final night of the legislative session. So was a last-minute amendment permitting Hollywood Park race track to branch into card clubs of its own.

In Los Angeles, serious schemes are being laid for a casino hotel near the new Downtown Convention Center, promoted yet again as an effort to rebuild L.A. Its advocates lobbied successfully in Sacramento last month for an amendment to prevent any interference with Downtown casino development. That amendment died with the bill.

One explanation for the gambling control measure’s defeat was partisan politics. Gov. Wilson and Democratic leaders could not agree on who would appoint the proposed commission.

But that only skims the truth. Gambling is integral to the vision of a new entertainment economy shared by many powerful decision-makers, and regulation might interfere with their interests.

With the demise of defense contracts and shrinking investments in the inner city, these advocates ask, what better economic strategy is there for America’s fantasy capital than a gambling casino for the whole family?

The entertainment economy is now the growth engine of Southern California, and according to Business Week, “gambling is humming the fastest.” We are becoming a “Gambling Nation,” headlines the New York Times.

Card clubs in Southern California alone took in $7.5 billion in wagers last year. More than $15 billion was wagered on Indian reservations last year, much of it in California. Nationally, legal gambling revenues were $30 billion in 1993, more than the combined revenue of movies, books, records and arcades.

Feeling their new respectability and clout, the new defenders of gambling ask, “What’s wrong with gambling anyway?” It’s outmoded Puritanism, they say, to oppose bingo, lotto and blackjack, not to mention those slot machines on Indian reservations. And for clinchers they say gambling means jobs, jobs, jobs.

I’m not a prohibitionist. But you don’t have to be Puritan to question whether kids should be exposed to gambling as family entertainment. Gambling is an addiction for many, a fantasy for many. It creates no new wealth and yet, for the first time in our economic history, this non-productive sector is being proposed as an anchor of growth.

With anarchy, hunger, racism and joblessness rising all over the globe, what does it say about our character that we devote so much of our high-tech potential to inventing better gambling machines? Gambling, not religion, is the opiate of the people, and those sponsoring it are new Neros.

Above all, there is the cancer of political corruption spread by gambling. Local regulation of card clubs has been lax in cities like Bell Gardens and Commerce which depend on gambling revenues. For example, federal prosecutors proved the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens was built from laundered drug money. It is now under federal receivership. A long-time operator at the club is on trial for loan sharking and extortion.

Even clean, publicly traded gambling corporations can corrupt and dominate the democratic process with their massive lobbying efforts, usually conducted against penniless opposition.

Since 1990, gambling interests have spent $5.3 million on campaign contributions and lobbying in Sacramento. Hollywood Park gave $441,370 to politicians, spent $364,917 on lobbying and threw in another $490,000 to the Inglewood voter referendum that approved their casino by 52%.

The explosive growth of gambling makes statewide campaign finance reform more needed than ever. In addition, a tough, independent state gambling commission should be created; those who hold or seek gambling licenses should be prohibited from making campaign contributions to the attorney general or to local referendums on casinos; and any advertising that promotes gambling as “family entertainment” or healthy for kids should be regarded as deceptive and be prohibited.

As for a Downtown L.A. casino, state law requires local voter approval. The gambling lobby is betting that, in hard times, voters can be lured to vote for Lady Luck. That’s all the more reason for getting a serious gambling commission in place by 1995.