Here is the PERFECT example of how gambling expands. If the
lottery prohibition is removed from the State Constitution and the horse track is built in
Memphis, Tennessee will be wide open. We will either eventually have every kind and type
of gambling or we will be in a perpetual fight EVERY YEAR to try to stop the expansion.
"Gambling is predatory enterprise that always needs a new 'mark' or a new
market."
From the West Virginia Gazette:
Underwood skeptical of legalized 'gray machines'
Governor's chief worry is over how far gambling should be allowed to expand, tax secretary
says (West Virginia)
March 8, 1999
By Paul J. Nyden STAFF WRITER
State Tax and Revenue Secretary
Robin Capehart said the Underwood administration is watching a bill moving through the
Legislature to legalize video slot machines. "I think that Governor Underwood will
have some serious concerns about the broad expansion of legalized gambling," Capehart
said last week. Most of the more than 2,300 bars and restaurants with state alcohol
licenses also have "gray machines" that routinely make illegal payouts to
gamblers.
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee originated a bill
to legalize "gray machines" and allow each bar or restaurant to have up to 10
machines. If the bill passes, it could legalize up to 23,000 video slot machines. Today,
those machines might generate between $400 million and $1.3 billion in profits annually.
"This is an expansion of the Lottery," Capehart said. "If the bill becomes
law, we will enforce it. "But look at where we were in 1984," when voters
approved the Lottery amendment, Capehart said. "This is a slippery slope. The
governor has serious concerns. "In 1980, the voters legalized bingo, so local
charities and civic organizations could have it. I wonder if they realized it would go
beyond 'The Little Sisters of the Poor,' to the huge bingo parlors today. "When
voters passed the Lottery Amendment to the Constitution in 1984, they thought the Lottery
would pick three numbers every night. You would see if you won. "Did they think about
expansion of slot machines at the tracks? How far will it go? Where will it end?"
Capehart asked. Capehart is still pursuing his own effort, announced in December, to
monitor all money fed into video poker machines, and other amusement machines, throughout
the state.
A bill supporting his plan was introduced in the House of
Delegates on Feb. 26. Its sponsors are Delegates Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia; Susan
Hubbard, D-Cabell; Mary Pearl Compton, D-Monroe; Bill Proudfoot, D-Randolph; Peggy Miller,
R-Kanawha; Vicki Douglas, D-Berkeley; and William Laird, R-Fayette. The bill would require
gray machine owners to pay license fees. Owners would also be required to install auditing
equipment to report the amount of cash played on each machine to a central computer system
at the Tax Department. "Our bill would audit all these machines," Capehart said.
"Some of the money would go to local law enforcement." Capehart stressed his
bill would not legalize the gray machines. "A law is a big step. It is saying
something is all right."
The Rev. Nathan A. Wilson, executive director of the West
Virginia Council of Churches, opposes all expansion of gambling in the state. "These
are social justice issues. Those machines are everywhere. They do not discriminate along
socioeconomic lines, or by income or by age. They will take anyone's money.
"Licensing these machines is one thing. We do oppose that," Wilson said,
referring to Fleischauer's bill. "But licensing them is at least an attempt to find
out how many there are and where they are. Legalizing them is completely ridiculous, blind
to social reality."
Wilson believes all gambling expansion should have statewide
voter approval, including any bill to legalize casino gambling at The Greenbrier. The
current bill to legalize gray machines requires no vote at all. All previous expansions of
gambling have required a vote: A statewide vote was required to legalize the West Virginia
Lottery. A statewide vote was required to legalize charitable bingo and raffles. In
addition, voters in each county had the option to disapprove bingo and raffle games
locally. County voters must approve any new horse or dog tracks before they are built. A
countywide vote was required before each of West Virginia's existing four tracks could
race on Sunday. A countywide vote was required before each of the state's four tracks
could install video lottery machines approved by the Legislature. County voters also have
the option, after five years, to eliminate video lottery machines at their tracks.
If a proposed bill to legalize casino gambling at The Greenbrier
passes the Legislature this month, Greenbrier County voters must also approve it. When
riverboat gambling was proposed, unsuccessfully, in the early 1990s, all proposals
included requirements for county elections in all places the boats would have been docked.
"When you expand gambling," Wilson said, "the whole state will have to bear
the social costs. So the Legislature should require statewide votes."
For Additional Article from Boston Globe CLICK HERE |
