Anti-Gambling Foes Either Amuse Bettors or Exasperate Them

Those of us who like to bet are frequently amused or exasperated by the rhetoric of anti-gambling moralists. But rarely has there been such an outpouring of hyperbole and hypocrisy on the subject since the creation of a federal commission that will study the gambling industry.

The New York Times’ William Safire wants the National Gambling Impact Study Commission to reveal the sordid truths about this “evil industry”--to “illuminate the truth about gambling’s false promises and regressive taxation” and to “protect compulsive gamblers from a life of crime.” Safire frets that the commission is being stacked with members who are sympathetic to gambling.

The Washington Post, in two separate editorials, has decried the appointment of members with ties to the gambling industry: “Unless there’s a sudden cleaning-up of the Clinton administration’s reported list (of appointees), the . . . commission will be as loaded as the dice in a corrupt casino.”

These comments imply that the commission was established by Congress to produce a fair, objective study of gambling in America. In fact, the impetus came from conservative opponents of gambling, such as Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who has said it is inconsistent to be both pro-gambling and pro-family.

The law setting up the commission charges it to focus principally on the supposed evils of wagering--the “relationship between gambling and levels of crime,” “an assessment of pathological or problem gambling,” etc. One of the first two appointees was a leader of the conservative Focus on the Family. The casino industry, realizing it could not block the commission, decided to fight fire with fire, and worked to get pro-gambling representatives on the nine-person panel.

Three members are yet to be named by President Clinton, but the group will be no blue-ribbon committee of economists and sociologists capable of taking an objective look at the subject.

Because some members are known to be strongly anti-gambling and others have ties with the gambling industry, it is hard to imagine their final report will be anything but a mishmash of competing viewpoints. And there’s another problem with this whole undertaking. It virtually equates gambling with the casino-gambling industry.

The law creating the commission makes only an oblique reference to horse racing. None of the members appointed to date has any horse-racing connection; most are defined as being pro- or anti-casino. Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council, said, “We think it would be unfortunate not to include someone with a knowledge of parimutuel racing and the agribusiness it supports. Racing has a $34 billion impact on the economy.”

There is an even-greater blind spot in the anti-gambling moralists’ view of the world. They rarely decry the evil of state lotteries. The Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute recently published a study that reached this conclusion: “The preoccupation (of gambling opponents) with casinos is puzzling, because almost every argument that is raised against casino gambling applies with greater force to lotteries.”

This analysis noted: “Those making the moral case against gambling frequently depict casino patrons as hapless victims of unscrupulous gambling kingpins. Yet casino patrons tend to have above-average levels of income and education. State lotteries, on the other hand, cater to a segment of the population that is relatively less affluent (with) less education . . . (and their ads) frequently mislead people as to their chances of winning.”

These facts are undeniable, yet you’ll never hear anti-gambling politicians declaring that morality begins at home and that their state lotteries should be abolished. The commission won’t have much credibility if it focuses on the evils of the casino industry while ignoring the most exploitive game of all.

The commission members are going to spend two years of work and millions of taxpayer dollars to generate a report that will promptly be ignored by everyone.

To save all this of effort and expense, I’d like to volunteer my services. I think I know a little more about gambling than members of Focus on the Family. Here is my report on the subject:

--The gambling industry is booming for the simple reason that Americans love to gamble, and there is little that the federal government can do to restrain that urge.

--Gambling does enable some people to behave in irrational or self-destructive fashion, and society must give more help to problem gamblers. But gambling’s “victims” are mostly people who would get themselves in trouble some other way if they didn’t bet.

--The links between gambling and organized crime are mostly a myth in an era when casinos are controlled by publicly held companies. Criminals thrive in the gambling business mostly when the government attempts prohibition--as in the case of the multibillion sports betting industry.

--Gambling on the Internet is growing, as is telephone betting with offshore operations. So even if government wants to curtail gambling, it is practically powerless to do so. But if the prohibitionists can’t resist doing some regulating, they might start with the one that they can most easily control--state lotteries.

I hereby submit this report to Congress, saving Uncle Sam millions. And it’s a more honest and intelligent report than the National Gambling Impact Study Commission will produce two years hence. I’ll bet on that.