Date: Fri 18-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: MELISS

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gambling-Collins-Commentary

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COMMENTARY: To Win At Gambling, Own The Game

By Bill Collins

Tease those gamblers,

Make 'em bet;

When they lose,

It ups our net.

Human addiction may cause untold suffering, but it also offers dandy profits.

Just so with the four big addictions in our society -- alcohol, tobacco,

drugs, and gambling. Both federal and state governments pay some small heed to

the suffering, and enormous heed to the profits.

Take alcohol. It's wicked, of course, but the more that's sold, the more tax

revenue. We do place some odd limits on advertising it -- beer is OK on TV,

but not hard liquor -- and we do limit where it can be bought. But some states

take an even bigger cut of the profits than we, by doing the selling

themselves. So far, no state actually makes the stuff.

Tobacco is much the same. No state makes it, but we tax it like crazy. And we

make it very easy to buy. There's more profit that way. More addicts, too.

With drugs, America takes the opposite tack. Drugs are banned, period. Rather

than making a bundle off this addiction, we spend a bundle to fight it. We let

the crooks make the profit. Even so, as with the other three afflictions, we

don't spend much on treatment.

The final addiction -- gambling -- forms a vivid contrast. Rather than ban it

or just tax it, Connecticut, like many states, produces it. The state lottery

provides about half the gambling income for our treasury. For the other half

we license Indian casinos. This places us somewhere around the national moral

median. Some states curtail gambling more sharply -- others license even

non-Indian casinos.

As producers of gambling, of course, we find ourselves in an awkward moral

position. We're actually promoting addiction, primarily among poor minorities.

This differs from alcohol and tobacco, where we leave that tainted task to

evil corporations. We just tax their ill-gotten gains. Some have suggested

that we legalize drugs, too. Think of the profits.

In any case, encouraging lotteries has certainly paid off financially. But as

a result, compulsive gambling is now skyrocketing in our state as elsewhere.

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission has even recommended a

moratorium on any further expansion. Fat chance.

Luckily, the Connecticut economy has been so good, and tax revenues so grand,

that the state has in fact rethought a bit of its excessive lottery promotion.

The gambling van, which once plied fairs and other gatherings, has been

returned to the garage. The twice-a-day lottery has been abandoned. Now there

is even scrutiny of ticket vending machines. Good. Scrap them.

Let's do more, too. Let's end lottery advertising and let's sell tickets only

at liquor stores. That would go along with raising the gambling age to 21.

Liquor stores are the best at policing that limit.

Since many non-addicted people do enjoy gambling, we're not likely to do away

with Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun anytime soon. But the addicts there need more

protection. Credit cards and automatic tellers should be banned from casino

grounds, and anyone leaving a kid more than four hours in the child care

center should be banned, too.

It's not easy to decide where to draw the line on addictive behavior. Neither

prohibition nor total tolerance seems to be the solution. But on gambling,

Connecticut has gleefully swung past tolerance. Now we're deep into

encouragement. It's time to swing back the other way.

(Bill Collins, a former mayor of Norwalk, is a syndicated columnist. )