[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S6249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PLAYING IT CLOSE TO THE VEST

 Mr. SIMON. Mr President, Richard Cohen, the thoughtful 
columnist at the Washington Post, recently had an op-ed piece on 
gambling in the United States titled, ``Playing It Close to the Vest.'' 
It is a hard hitting, but factual presentation of the situation that we 
face today.
  One of the things that I noted, was the reference to the lottery in 
Maryland. He writes:

       Gambling has yet another dirty secret. It makes a lot of 
     money from those who can least afford to lose it. For 
     instance, residents of Baltimore, Maryland's poorest 
     jurisdiction, wager $316 per capita on the State lottery; for 
     Montgomery County, the State's richest jurisdiction, the 
     figure is $115. Lest you think that phenomenon applies only 
     in Maryland, look anywhere lottery tickets are sold.

  The problem with the lottery is only a small tip of a much bigger 
iceberg.
  I ask that the op-ed piece written by Richard Cohen be printed in the 
Record.
  The op-ed follows:

                [From the Washington Post, May 28, 1996]

                      Playing It Close to the Vest

                           (By Richard Cohen)

       I am thinking now of one of the ``Godfather'' movies in 
     which the young Michael Corleone, having transplanted his 
     family and operations to Nevada, bluntly tells a U.S. senator 
     what to do and how to do it. That sort of thing, of course, 
     could never happen today. Instead, the gambling industry 
     merely makes political contributions and hosts fund-raisers. 
     For most politicians, that's the offer they can't refuse.
       By way of illustration let us look at the progress of a 
     proposal to establish a national commission to study 
     gambling. This is not the worst idea to come out of 
     Washington, because not much is known about gambling's real 
     impact. Twenty years ago, only two states had some form of 
     gambling; now only two states do not. So it seemed to Rep. 
     Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) that a study 
     was in order.
       That, though, was easier proposed than done. The resolution 
     passed the House, but the Senate has been a different story. 
     There, opposition of the gambling industry has slowed things 
     down, and the post-Dole leadership reportedly is hostile to 
     the study. The American Gaming Association (``Gaming?'') has 
     bought itself a trifecta of top lobbyists and has thrown 
     oodles of money into, particularly, the Republican Party.
       Steve Wynn, owner of Las Vegas' Mirage casino company, now 
     has the sort of entry into GOP circles that was once reserved 
     for captains of industry. Little wonder. Last June, he hosted 
     a fund-raiser for Bob Dole. The take: $478,000. In June 1994, 
     he raised $540,000 for the GOP. Just possibly for this 
     reason, Newt Gingrich recently proposed that the gambling 
     commission not even have subpoena power. Just by coincidence, 
     he made this proposal in Las Vegas. Family values at work 
     again.
       The ``gaming'' industry insists that there is really 
     nothing to study. Gambling--er, gaming--is heavily regulated 
     and state controlled and so clean that you can see mommies 
     with their kiddies at the slots in Vegas. But that, of 
     course, is the problem. It would be interesting to know just 
     how many mommies are gambling away their kids' milk money as 
     they feed the slots or, worse, video poker machines. The 
     poker machines, in particular, are known for their addictive 
     charm.
       Gambling is a huge business. It takes in more money than 
     the movies, baseball, football, theme parks or just about 
     anything else you can name. About 70 million people attend 
     professional baseball games annually, but 125 million go to 
     casinos, where there is never a rainout, but then the sun 
     never shines, either.
       Americans wagered nearly $500 billion in 1994 and lost 
     about $40 billion of that total. Most of the losers could 
     afford what they left on the table, but some, clearly, could 
     not. These compulsive gamblers--maybe no more than 4 percent 
     to 6 percent of all players--may well account for at least 25 
     percent of the gambling industry's profits. They are to 
     gambling what pint buyers are to the liquor industry: a gold 
     mine and a dirty shame.
       Gambling has yet another dirty secret. It makes a lot of 
     money from those who can least afford to lose it. For 
     instance, residents of Baltimore, Maryland's poorest 
     jurisdiction, wager $316 per capita on the state lottery; 
     for Montgomery County, the state's richest jurisdiction, 
     the figure is $115. Lest you think that phenomenon applies 
     only in Maryland, look anywhere lottery tickets are sold.
       Here and there in this country, in weird pockets of 
     liberalism and in homes for the aged, some people can be 
     found who still care about the poor. As for the rest, we 
     mostly don't care if they spend more than they can afford or 
     if the government, through the false hope of a lottery, 
     imposes what amounts to a ``dream tax'' on those who can 
     least afford it. No more government as nanny. If people want 
     to gamble, let them gamble.
       But let us not fool ourselves. Some of them will gamble the 
     rent money, and some will become addicted to games like Keno 
     and after a while, maybe the money that states collect from 
     gambling in going out in social services. It's one thing for 
     the mob to bleed the poor; it's quite another thing for the 
     state to do the same thing.
       Whatever the case, little is known about gambling's impact, 
     and, it seems, the gambling industry likes it that way. It 
     pretends that what was once an industry dominated by the mob 
     is now the equivalent of a state fair. Not quite. Politicians 
     still are on the take, and the poor are still being 
     victimized. Little wonder the gaming industry is so reluctant 
     to have the feds take a look. It sells fantasy, but often 
     delivers misery.

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