[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16674-S16675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GAMBLING FEVER

 Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
attached article be printed in the Record. 

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 10, 1995]

                             Gambling Fever

                          (By William Safire)

       Harpers Ferry, W.Va--At the age of 14. I was standing on a 
     landing in the stairwell at Joan of Arc Junior High School in 
     Manhattan, watching a crap game, when I felt the heavy hand 
     of a teacher on my shoulder.
       My protest that I didn't even have a bet down was 
     unavailing; four of us, all seniors, were branded as 
     gamblers. The shaming punishment: though permitted to be 
     graduated, I was refused a place at commencement and denied a 
     diploma.
       That was back when gambling was viewed as wrong: when 
     bookies and numbers racketeers were considered the scum of 
     society; and when a lust for something-for-nothing was looked 
     upon as a weakness of character.
       Today, state-sponsored gambling is the national pastime. 
     Nearly 100 million casino visitors, video gamblers and sports 
     bettors wager close to a half-trillion dollars--with $40 
     billion going to the ``house.''
       And today, aboriginal Americans are exploiting those of us 
     who followed in neon casinos on their reservations. The 
     tribes are becoming a nation of croupiers, in league with 
     national gambling interests, while pretending ill-gotten 
     profits are used primarily to educate their children.
       The ``gambling industry''--none of its pious proponents 
     call it the gambling racket--is the source of the greatest 
     sustained, bipartisan political hypocrisy of our time.
       Liberals, professing a horror of regressive taxation, turn 
     a blind eye to the way state-sponsored gambling redistributes 
     income upward, and how new casino permissions snatch welfare 
     checks to fatten per-share earnings of casino stockholders.
       Conservatives, ostensibly upholders of public morality, 
     approve government advertising campaigns to entice citizens 
     to gamble in lotteries and play the ponies at off-track 
     betting parlors.
       Gullible voters were sold this notion: since many people 
     liked to gamble anyway, why not turn gambling's profits to 
     public benefit?
       But the result is the gambling epidemic, with its 
     associated money laundering by criminals, corruption of 
     public officials and ``cannibalization'' of local economics. 
     Thanks to the public blessing of gambling by government, the 
     moral stigma was removed and the high roller has become a 
     folk hero.
       The media cannot escape their share of the blame. From the 
     hysterical hype of the Publishers Clearing House to the 
     front-page and primetime publicity given sweeptakes 
     winners (nobody covers the losers), we have glorified the 
     pernicious philosophy of something-for-nothing.
       Nothing is for nothing. Crime always goes hand-in-hand with 
     gambling. Here in the relatively poor state of West Virginia, 
     a former governor confessed to taking bribes from racetrack 
     operators and a lottery director was jailed for rigging a 
     video lottery contract. Disgusted, church groups recently 
     leaned on legislators to reject riverboat gambling, and the 
     pols suddenly realized that a pro-casino vote could be a 
     loser.
       Now the media are at last awakening. Gee-Whiz stories 
     touting the craze are out and hard reporting of the spreading 
     addiction is in.
       The Economist cast into doubt the claim that gambling 
     salvages local economies. USA Today headlined: ``Nation 
     raising `a generation of gamblers,' '' focusing on the ring 
     corrupting schools in suburban Nutley, N.J. The best 
     reporting was in Sports Illustrated's detailed expose of the 
     gambling addiction rampant in the nation's colleges.
       But television news is still gambling's friend. With young 
     gamblers relying heavily 

[[Page S 16675]]
     on the sports ticker that runs at the bottom of CNN's Headline News, 
     that network has a special responsibility to show how the 
     lives of many students are being ruined by the compulsion its 
     ticker helps feed. A ``Gambling is for suckers'' crawl among 
     the scores would do for starters.
       Will the pols sense the coming voter revulsion at the 
     ``painless'' revenue source that failed? Representative Frank 
     Wolf of Virginia has introduced a bill to establish a 
     ``National Gambling Impact and Policy Commission''; let's see 
     if the casino lobby can buy the votes to avert scrutiny and 
     resigmatizing.
       The yen to gamble is a personal weakness, but state-
     sponsored gambling is a banana-republic abomination that 
     undermines national values. My gratitude goes to that tough 
     teacher at Joan of Arc who stopped me before I started.

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