Lawmakers Failed To Take Step No. 1

Let’s all be thankful that Washington lawmakers do not run the trains at Amtrak.

Even so, they’ve managed a pretty spectacular train wreck of their own.

Today, Spokane gambling is booming because state legislators snoozed on the job. In 1997, they yawned and allowed a little-noticed senate bill to slide through the Legislature. This bill, described as a minor change in the law, wound up bringing Las Vegas-style house banks to the state’s card rooms. Now, local mini-casinos can run jackpots of $10,000 or more.

In Spokane County there are five of these non-tribal casinos and five more are expected by the end of the year. Gross receipts in state card rooms have increased 58 percent and some card rooms are bringing in 12 times more than they were a year ago.

As the gambling industry explodes in Spokane, it will be the community which will be forced to pick up the pieces. It will be families and businesses that will sustain the damage when bankruptcies, domestic violence and suicide increase.

How did this happen? It appears that neither lawmakers nor the governor took the time to read the bill and research its potential consequences.

In a recent poll of eight Eastern Washington legislators, seven said the bill should have received more scrutiny.

“Maybe we were asleep at the switch,” says state Sen. Bob McCaslin. “Sometimes we pass legislation and aren’t really sure what the impact will be.”

Gov. Gary Locke says he understood the bill to be only a technical change in the law. “If I could do it over again,” he said recently, “I would probably veto it.”

So downplayed was this bill that nobody thought to ask if it should fall under a constitutionally required 60 percent vote. Any bill expanding gambling in Washington must pass both houses with that majority.

One person who could have explained the changes in detail was Frank Miller, director of the Washington State Gambling Commission. He left the commission and now works as a lawyer representing the gambling industry.

Voters have a right to expect more from their elected officials. It should go without saying that legislators read and understand the bills on which they vote.

Luckily, there’s a way to get this train back on track. It’s not too late to repeal the bill.

As state lawmakers assess the house-banking bill’s toll in cities such as Spokane, they have a chance to do the research they neglected the first time.

Step No. 1: Read and understand the bill.