March 31, 1999
Gambling commission report near
___By Tom Strode
___SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
___WASHINGTON (BP)--A congressionally established commission studying the impact of gambling signaled in its latest meeting some of its strongest criticisms in its final report may be about state lotteries and wagering on the Internet.
___The National Gambling Impact Study Commission met in Washington for three days as it prepares its report, which is due in June.
___Several commissioners indicated their discomfort with state-sponsored lotteries.
___"I really believe some of our strongest negative comments need to be" on the promotion of lotteries, said commissioner James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. While he is not suggesting the commission recommend outlawing the practice, Dobson said, the panel has an obligation to speak out on the lottery's "regressive nature, the way it exploits the poor, the way it preys on desperation."
___Robert Loescher, president of Sealaska Corp. and a member of the Tlingit Tribe of Alaska, said he struggles with the idea state government is not just a "regulator, but an operator" of lotteries. He is concerned about the impact lotteries have on people who are trying to move from welfare to work, Loescher said.
___Terrence Lanni said the panel could call for the states that operate lotteries to make some commitment to addressing the problem of pathological gambling. Lanni is chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MGM Grand Inc., a gambling, entertainment and hotel company.
___The commissioners' concerns were expressed after receiving a preliminary report on lotteries from a Duke University team that showed 5 percent of lottery participants account for 51 percent of sales. That group spent $3,473 or more per person.
___William Bible, chairman of the commission's Regulation, Enforcement and Internet Subcommittee, said his subgroup would recommend to the full commission a ban on Internet gambling.
___Another commissioner, John Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Em-ployees International Union, said work by his union's law-yers led him to "believe there is no free-speech problem" with banning Internet gambling. While the government cannot ban free speech, it "can ban the actual conduct of gambling."
___The full commission has two more meetings scheduled before issuing its report, the first national one since 1976.
___The commission's report will provide gambling opponents in the states with much-needed information, said Weston Ware of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___"When we were fighting pari-mutuel (gambling) in Texas in '83, we were using the data from '76," he said. "We've got the continual pressure toward casinos. There's a bill now calling for a casino commission which would decide where to put a casino and when and why and how much to pay the casino employees, and that bill is not going to go anywhere. But that pressure is going to continue."Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!