House Votes For Gambling Study Commission Would Investigate Economic And Social Impacts

A federal commission to study the economic and social impacts of gambling would be created under a bill passed Tuesday by the House.

Members from both parties pointed with alarm to the enormous expansion of legalized gambling in recent years, but opponents of the bill termed the commission an unwarranted intrusion into an area traditionally regulated by the states.

The bill was passed by voice vote. It has not cleared the Senate.

The nine-member panel would operate on a $4 million budget.

“We simply need better and more accurate scientific and behavioral data concerning gambling,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Lacking information, he said, state and local officials considering legalization of various types of gambling “are often vulnerable to exaggerated claims about the positive effects of gambling and the prospects for painless revenue generation.”

But other lawmakers from big gambling states criticized the bill as a threat to a major revenue source.

“Educational funding for our children has been enhanced because of revenues from the gaming industry,” said Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo, R-N.J.

The commission, said Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, R-Nev., “goes against everything this new Congress is supposed to stand for - limiting the ever-increasing intrusion of the federal government in our everyday lives.”

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., chief sponsor of the measure, said, “Powerful interests have been hired to derail this bill. … It’s a fair study the American people want to see.”

Commission members would be appointed by the president, the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.