[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 125 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S10916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                GAMBLING

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, as always, the Senator from Illinois 
raises for this Senate the right questions and in a very sensitive way. 
I have said previously on this floor in discussing some other items 
that one of the growth industries in America, regrettably now, is 
gambling. There is more spent, at least for the more recent year I have 
seen, there is more spent for gambling in America than is spent on 
America's national defense. In a recent year, it was $400 billion-plus 
just on legal gambling. We spend less than $300 billion on America's 
defense. I think all of the questions that relate to this issue of 
gambling need to be asked and need to be studied.
  It was interesting to me one evening when I had the television set 
on, though I was not really watching it much--and on one of the local 
stations in the Washington, DC, area they were doing their live drawing 
for their lottery. They do that live with these little ping-pong balls 
with numbers on them. It was on the screen. I never participated in 
those things. This was on the screen, and then across the bottom of the 
screen scrolled an urgent news bulletin. It was not so urgent that they 
would take the lottery selection off, because they were doing that 
live, they did not want to interrupt that.
  So they kept on picking the lottery balls out and announcing the 
numbers. The news scrolled across the bottom of the television screen 
that Gorbachev had just resigned in the Soviet Union. I was thinking to 
myself, this is incredibly bizarre. Here is something that will affect 
the lives of virtually everyone in the world. The leaders of one of the 
major powers in the world resigns, but instead of cutting in with a 
news report, they cannot interrupt the lottery, so they scroll it 
across the bottom of the screen.
  That is what we have come to, with respect to this issue of gambling 
in America today.
  Mr. SIMON. Mr. President if my colleague will yield for an 
observation. I thank him. As usual, Senator Dorgan is right on target 
on this issue.
  Today, I regret to say, we have topped $500 billion now in total 
gross income. It is a fast-growing industry in the United States.
  Mr. DORGAN. That is probably legal wagers. There is substantial 
illegal wagering in America.
  Mr. SIMON. That does not count what happens illegally. The second 
thing, the Senator mentioned in passing--as you saw them take these 
balls for the lottery--that you do not spend any money on it. Most 
people of our income level do not. It is the poor that they try to 
appeal to.
 And it is very clear, both from studies and from the advertising, that 
this is an attempt to extract money from the poor. We ought to be able 
to get revenue in a better way for our Government.

  Mr. DORGAN. I do not come to the floor suggesting that gambling is 
always wrong or ought to be made illegal. I think it is very useful to 
study, and I think that the commission approach makes a lot of sense. 
We ought to be evaluating what does all of this mean for our country? 
Who is affected by it, and how? That is what I think the Senator from 
Illinois was saying. I think it is timely and important. I have 
indicated that to Congressman Wolf and others, as well.
  Mr. SIMON. I thank my colleague.

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