Casino Initiative: Riches Or Ruins? Pritchard Blasts Slot Machines As ‘Heroin Of Gambling’

A proposal to allow slot machines in Indian casinos was blasted Thursday as the gambling equivalent of heroin and praised as a way to help Indians rescue themselves from economic ruin.

Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard, a liberal Republican who has emerged as a leading opponent of Initiative 651, said he is sympathetic to Indians’ economic plight, but that gambling shouldn’t be their panacea and should not be sold as a way to help the state economy.

“It’s hard to believe the economic well-being of the state will be well-served by bringing in slot machines,” he told a forum sponsored by the Capital City Press Club. “Slot machines are the heroin of gambling.”

Players get addicted to the “one-armed bandits” and society is worse off, not enhanced, by expanded gambling, he said.

“It’s a very touchy and dangerous thing to start with,” and the problem is compounded by the initiative’s lack of adequate regulation, Pritchard said.

But all three of the Indian speakers, including an opponent of the initiative, staunchly defended efforts to legalize slot machines and video poker.

“This is not heroin,” said Monica Gutierrez, owner and manager of the Double Eagle Casino on Spokane tribal land at Chewelah. “The average buy is $40. This is not a scary place.”

Herb Whitish, chairman of the Shoalwater Bay tribe near Tokeland in Pacific County, said most tribes need slot machines and video poker to make their casinos profitable and to generate enough revenue to build destination resorts.

Doreen Maloney, general manager of the Upper Skagit Tribe in Sedro Woolley, said she opposes the initiative, but that she and most tribal leaders across the state agree that slot machines are appropriate and needed.

“Once we defeat this initiative, we’ll come back at you for slot machines,” she said.

At least nine tribes are lined up against the initiative, because it would siphon off 10 percent of the profits for annual checks to voters and because restrictions are inadequate, she said. The initiative, for instance, has no limits on how many casinos can pop up, she said.

“We believe this bill goes too far in unrestricted gambling and jeopardizes the resource” in the same way that unfettered fishing would destroy fish runs, Maloney said.