[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NO RIGHT WAY TO DO WRONG

   Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, someone called my attention to an 
editorial in the Omaha World-Herald on the subject of gambling. I hope 
before long we will authorize a Commission to look at what we should do 
about this subject nationally. But the editorial in the Omaha World-
Herald, which I ask to be printed in full in the Record, may be a cause 
for some reflection.
  The article follows:

              [From the Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 19, 1995]

                        No Right Way To Do Wrong

       As we were musing recently about the inability of some 
     local officials to say no to the gambling industry, we 
     recalled what Howard Buffett, then a Douglas County 
     commissioner, said when the city-county keno issue came up 
     for a vote in 1991.
       ``To me, it's clearly wrong,'' he said. ``I don't think 
     there's any right way to do what you think is wrong.'' 
     Buffett said government shouldn't condone a practice that 
     undermines the work ethic. He was the only county 
     commissioner to oppose the deal.
       Regrettably, Buffett is no longer part of county 
     government. He resigned in 1992 and moved to Illinois to take 
     a new job.
       Buffett didn't stop being concerned about gambling. In 
     Illinois, he helped campaign against the spread of riverboat 
     gambling. A friend in Massachusetts heard about his efforts 
     and asked him to write down his views on gambling and 
     government for use in a Massachusetts anti-gambling effort.
       The views he set down were again on target.
       America was built on hard work, commitment and honesty, he 
     said. Gambling reduces productivity and ``cannibalizes 
     existing industry.'' It spawns political corruption--the 
     bigger it gets, the more government cooperation it requires. 
     When profits drop, some governments have lowered the tax 
     rates the gambling industry pays, thus putting more pressure 
     on other taxpayers.
       Gambling doesn't pay its own way. Taxpayers are stuck with 
     social problems. In Illinois, Buffett said, government must 
     spend $3 to $6 for public safety, regulation and other 
     gambling-related items for each $1 it receives in gambling 
     revenue.
       Gambling deceives and misleads. Promoters deceptively 
     portray everyone as a winner in advertisements that ``help 
     wring billions of dollars from the most vulnerable 
     `customers' possible--the poor and the addicted.'' Teen-agers 
     bet up to $1 billion a year. An estimated 8 percent of the 
     nation's adolescents are problem gamblers.
       ``The state,'' Buffet wrote, ``should not even allow 
     gambling, much less conduct it.''
       He's right. His article contains a challenge for government 
     officials. Portraying government-sponsored gambling as a 
     lifelong investment, he asked: ``Is it an investment that you 
     will be proud to hand down to the next generation?''
       With the exception of Mayor Daub, few officials of Omaha 
     and Douglas County have indicated that they have as clear a 
     view. They should think about Buffett's challenge. Will they 
     indeed be proud of what they are leaving their children and 
     grandchildren?

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