Those interested
in helping theanti-gambling initiative effort should call
224-2647.
Last week, we wandered into a bar at 3 in the afternoon. Purely
in the interest of research.
We sat on padded stools in front of a bank of video-poker
machines, joining two middle-aged men. Within 20 minutes,
the hypnotic effect of the terminal, the swiftness with
which it dealt another hand and the seductive fashion in
which we became convinced we were playing a game of skill
all worked their magic. We lost $22.
No wonder they call it video crack.
A report issued by a Portland consulting firm last week
confirmed that the gambling monkey is on Oregon's back.
Playing the ponies, the dogs, the slots at Spirit Mountain,
lotto, the scratch-off tickets at 7-11 and the variety of
other "games," as the industry prefers to call them, has
become Oregon's most popular recreational activity--a $920
million-a-year industry. According to the study, in 1998
every man, woman and child in our state lost an average
of $282 to gambling, a sum that on a per capita basis is
larger than almost every other state's in the country. And
no form of gaming is as popular as video poker.
Last month, a federal task force called the National Gambling
Impact Study Commission confirmed the extraordinary growth
in the gambling business and the parallel increase in the
casualties it creates. Five million Americans, the study
reports, have become gambling addicts, people whose lives
are consumed by the games.
There is no shortage of horror stories about the human
debris that gambling creates. The most grim may be that
of the Savannah, Ga., mother who left her 10-day-old infant
in her Buick for seven hours while she gambled in a casino.
The baby died of dehydration.
Though the Washington, D.C., commission identified the
problem, it is having much less success proposing a solution.
The commission, which includes representatives from the
gambling industry, voted narrowly to ask communities to
consider a moratorium on any new casinos or other forms
of gambling. Even this toothless recommendation ran into
trouble, catching flak from, among others, Frank Fahrenkopf,
the former chairman of the Republican Party and now the
chief lobbyist for the American Gaming Association.
Things look different here. Earlier this year, an initiative
was filed with the secretary of state's office that would
rid Oregon of its 8,800 video-poker machines. The moral
leadership is being provided by Tom Grey, a Methodist minister
from Illinois who directs the National Coalition Against
Gambling Expansion. The grassroots effort is led by Lloyd
Marbet, the anti-nuclear activist who, depending on your
point of view, is either one of this state's greatest resources
or its biggest pain in the ass. Financial support is coming
from Greg Kafoury, the Portland lawyer and Ralph Nader buddy
who has pledged $100,000 of his own funds to get the measure
on the 2000 ballot.
We urge you to support this effort and give Oregonians
the chance to debate the merits of state-sanctioned gambling.
Eliminating video poker won't be easy--in part because
it generates $450 million for Oregon's general fund and
also because it benefits the restaurant industry, now the
state's most aggressive special interest. But Oregon was
the first state to pass the bottle bill, the first to create
statewide land-use planning, the first to legalize physician-assisted
suicide and the first to institute the vote-by-mail option
for all elections. The fact that no state has ever stopped
the juggernaut of organized gambling should not be a stumbling
block.
It should be an incentive.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 12, 1999 |
