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by Dave Bohon
It has become a perennial problem. Each year otherwise conservative elected officials, concerned with generating revenue for Minnesota’s cash-starved government, plant the seeds of gambling expansion in a state that already boasts nearly 20 Indian casinos, a state lottery, and a horse-racing park. The schemes inevitably come via a host of legislative initiatives whose sponsors insist will generate millions of dollars in state funding. This year the spotlight shined brightly on Governor Pawlenty’s own plan for a metro-area casino run jointly by the state and three northern Minnesota Indian tribes. The plan called for the tribes to pay the state a one-time “licensing fee” of $200 million and to share profits from the casino — projected at $164 million or — with the state. While the plan was ultimately torpedoed by the DFL’s Senate leadership — as well as dissatisfied officials of the partnering tribes — the fact that it was given serious consideration (complete with blueprints for a “Caesar’s Palace”-style mega-casino adjacent to the Mall of America) should cause concern among pro-family conservatives throughout Minnesota. With the state legislature regularly facing daunting budget deficits, it’s not difficult to understand why lawmakers and the governor would turn to such an attractive cash cow. Estimates of the yearly profits from legalized gambling in Minnesota run as high as $1.8 billion. The bulk of those profits come from Indian casinos, profits which do not benefit the state at all thanks to an ill-advised agreement negotiated years ago between the state and the tribes which absolves the Indian casinos of all obligations to giving any gambling profits back to the state — in perpetuity! Still, the state does profit rather handsomely from other gambling sources. According to Gambling in Minnesota, a special report by the Center of the American Experiment, in fiscal 2002 the state harvested $81.7 million from its own state lottery and almost $56 million from charitable gambling. In fairness to those lawmakers pushing for an expansion of state-sponsored gambling, a majority of their plans are designed (at least in part) to force the Indian casinos back to the table to renegotiate a compact that better serves state interests. In other words (goes the reasoning), if the tribes are threatened with state competition to their own casinos, they will be far more inclined to work a better compact that cuts the state into their handsome profits. The problem with that reasoning is two-fold, said Minnesota Family Council president Tom Prichard, one of the most vocal voices at the State Capitol in opposition to any expansion of gambling. “First, the tribes have a real motivation to fight against any change in the current system, since they are the big winners,” explained Prichard. “And they have lobbied successfully against gambling bills that don’t directly benefit them.” Of more serious concern, though, are the implications should a state-sponsored casino gain a foot hold in the state. “It’s all well and good to say that we’re using a state-sponsored casino as leverage to bring the tribes back to the table,” said Prichard. “But should such a casino become a reality, it would become very difficult to get the state government to back away from such easy money. It would be the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent, and it would inevitably lead to more and more expansion.” Just how does legalized gambling negatively impact a state? CAE’s Gambling in Minnesota report lists five major factors: • Increase in Political Corruption. This was demonstrated at the State Capitol in April 2004 when, recounts Gambling in Minnesota, “eight legislators (most members of a gambling oversight committee) received envelopes stuffed with checks from individuals with ties to Caesar’s Entertainment of Las Vegas.” Caesar’s had come to town with a full-court publicity blitz of its plans for a mega-casino in the metro area. While legislators returned all the checks, there are numerous accounts throughout the nation in which elected officials fell to similar overtures. These accounts point out the cold hard reality: the gambling industry is a multi-billion-dollar business, and those reaping the profits appear to be all too willing to grease the skids of gambling expansion with what many would describe as the politically corrupting tool of bribery. • Increase in Bankruptcies. “A national study has found that counties with gambling enterprises had an average of 18 percent more bankruptcies than those without. Counties with five or more gambling establishments were found to have 35 percent more bankruptcies,” notes Gambling in Minnesota. • Increase in Crime. Dr. Earl Grinols, a Baylor University economist who has extensively studied the implications of gambling on society, found that with the introduction of gambling casinos in an area came an eventual increase of six serious crimes: aggravated assault, rape, robbery, larceny, burglary, and auto theft. Other national studies confirm Grinols’ findings. Gambling in Minnesota reports on one of those studies: “U.S. News and World Report compared the crime rates of communities with casinos to those without casinos. Communities with casinos had an average crime rate that was 84 percent higher than those areas without casinos.” • Increase in Suicides. The undisputed gambling capital of the nation, Las Vegas, is also the nation’s undisputed leader in suicides. Las Vegas logs the most suicides in the nation for both residents and visitors. Likewise, as other states have introduced casino gambling, they too have seen an increase in suicide rates. • Increase in Family Problems. A plethora of national studies confirms that gambling intensifies such family problems as divorce, domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect. Gambling in Minnesota cites the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which noted that there is “abundant testimony and evidence that compulsive gambling introduces a greatly heightened level of stress and tension into marriages and families, often culminating in divorce and other manifestations of familial disharmony.” Legislators who tout the expansion of state-sponsored gambling as a quick fix for Minnesota’s budget woes are turning a blind eye to the negative economic impact that gambling brings along with the social and political baggage. Economist Grinols conservatively estimates that on a national scale, for every $46 of benefit gambling brings, it dumps $219 in social costs on society (it may be as high as $289). Prichard argues that the only way to effectively address the issue of gambling in Minnesota is to aggressively work to eliminate it entirely from the state — no small feat in today’s political and moral climate. “While we’re working against a veritable wall of opposition, we can keep some incremental goals in sight,” Prichard advised. “They include some practical steps legislators can take to reduce immediately the negative social impact of gambling.” Some of those steps include: • Elimination of the ubiquitous lottery advertising that now saturates television, radio, and local print media. • Placement of a moratorium on all gambling expansion on the state. • Banning all automatic teller machines (ATMs) from gambling establishments. • Raising the legal gambling age to 21. Ultimately, said Prichard, the goal is eliminating gambling’s blight from Minnesota. “This means the legislature must pass a law that will ‘sunset’ all gambling activities in the state,” he said. “That would include the closing of all Indian casinos, too.” Added Prichard, “We must also rebuild a cultural attitude, much more common in previous generations, that gambling is a vice, not a recreational activity. We need to ensure that as our children grow up and have their own families, they will be able to live in a state free of gambling.” |
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Minnesota Family Council / Minnesota Family Institute 2855 Anthony Lane South, Minneapolis MN, 55418-3265 Phone 612.789.8811, FAX 612.789.8858, www.mfc.org |