[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 23, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           NATIONAL GAMBLING IMPACT AND POLICY COMMISSION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 22, 1996

  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Senate version of 
H.R. 497, the National Gambling Impact and Policy Commission Act. The 
bill includes several provisions that are less satisfactory than the 
bill I coauthored with Representative Frank Wolf that passed the House 
in March. However, I believe it is imperative that we act now to 
initiate a comprehensive study of gambling and its impact on our 
society.
  The legislation before us today addresses issues and concerns that I 
have sought to bring to the attention of Congress since 1994. As 
chairman of the Committee on Small Business, I conducted hearings in 
September 1994, that documented the rapid proliferation of casino 
gambling throughout the United States and examined the economic impact 
of Government-sponsored gambling on small businesses, on individual 
communities, and on the Nation as a whole.
  Based on the findings of these hearings, I introduced the National 
Policies Toward Gambling Review Act in November 1994 to authorize a 
Federal study of the economic and social implications of this 
widespread growth of legalized gambling. This proposal, like that 
subsequently introduced by Mr. Wolf, creates a new national commission, 
along the lines of the commission that last studied gambling in 1976, 
and expands its study to all aspects of gambling in all States and 
localities. While I have reintroduced my bill in the current Congress, 
H.R. 462, I am also the lead cosponsor of H.R. 497.
  The 1994 Small Business Committee hearings convinced me that 
widespread legalized gambling has raised serious questions that local 
officials, and American society generally, were not prepared to 
address. The hearings confirmed what a New York Times article headline 
had proclaimed several weeks earlier, that ``Gambling Is Now Bigger 
Than Baseball'' as a national pastime. Some 125 million people visited 
casinos in 1994, a whopping 36-percent increase from 92 million in 
1993. Average annual attendance to professional baseball games barely 
reached 70 million. Casino revenues increase by a whopping 33 percent 
between 1993 and 1994, from $30 billion to $40 billion, more than the 
combined revenues for other major leisure activities, including movies, 
books, recorded music, spectator sports, theme parks, and arcades.
  Americans wagered $462 billion on all forms of legalized gambling in 
1994, more than the entire gross national product of Communist China. 
More than $360 billion was wagered in casinos in 10 States and on 
Indian reservations in 24 States, most of which were built since 1991. 
All but three States now permit parimutuel betting, slot machines, 
video poker, keno, bingo, or other forms of gambling. And 36 States 
actively encourage gambling with government-run lotteries.
  This is a far different situation than when the national commission 
issued its report on gambling in 1976. Legalized gambling was then 
confined to Nevada and under consideration for Atlantic City. The focus 
of the commission's study was the influence of organized crime in 
gambling, not the various economic and social implications of 
widespread gambling throughout the country.
  As gambling has spread across the United States, and even to 
locations on our border with Canada, it has become clear that the 
promised benefits of gambling as an approach for local economic 
development have proven to be illusory. States and localities now 
compete with Indian reservations and with other States to lure 
potential gamblers, or only to keep their gambling revenues at home. 
Casinos that were touted as bringing jobs and economic enrichment to 
communities in 1994 are now going bankrupt.
  The social costs of gambling also are becoming more visible as 
gambling spreads to more locations. Unfortunately, we have no 
estimates, for example, of the costs of gambling-related crimes, 
bankruptcies, or lost jobs and work time. Nor do we know the costs 
inflicted on families in terms of gambling-related alcoholism, divorce, 
or suicide.
  As State and Federal funding for social services and other programs 
continue to decline, local officials will come under even greater 
pressure to heed promises of new revenue and greater prosperity in 
legalized gambling. It is imperative that these officials, and the 
public generally, have all the information available to make reasoned 
and prudent policy decisions.
  Contrary to the arguments of some in the gambling industry, the bill 
before us today does not seek to restrict or regulate organized 
gambling, nor is it intended as a preliminary step toward such 
regulation. It merely responds to a growing public demand for more and 
better information about gambling. And it responds to requests by 
officials in New York and elsewhere for a broad analysis of the impact 
of gambling that can incorporate information from all States and from 
Indian tribal jurisdictions.
  I believe the bill before us today can provide the information the 
public needs to make more informed decisions about gambling. It is 
clearly not perfect. The subpoena authority in the Senate version 
applies only to documents, not individuals. And the wording of that 
authority is, at best, ambiguous. I am troubled also by the 
restrictions the bill would impose on the use of information generated 
by the commission, particularly the release of financial information to 
the public.
  However, the need for more comprehensive information and analysis of 
gambling is urgent in my State of New York and in other States. The 
commission bill before us, while not perfect, will provide 
significantly more information about the economic and social 
implications of gambling than is available today.
  Nearly 2 years have passed since I first proposed legislation to 
create a national commission to study gambling. It was needed then, it 
is imperative now. I urge adoption of this important legislation.

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