Gambling ‘Pause’ Considered National Panel May Ask For Moratorium On Expansion

Less than two weeks after Gov. Gary Locke asked for a moratorium on changes in the state’s gambling laws, a federal commission is considering recommending a suspension in the spread of casinos, slot machines and lotteries nationwide.

A draft report being discussed by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission says states should consider “an explicit moratorium on further expansion” until more is known about the effects of legalized gambling.

On April 14, Locke issued a letter to the Legislature and the Washington State Gambling Commission calling for a moratorium on changes in state gambling law.

“There are so many different proposals in the Legislature and before the Gambling Commission that I am convinced we all could use a `cooling-off’ period before adopting or rejecting any of them,” Locke wrote.

A similar comment was made by National Gambling Impact Study Commission member Richard Leone, who said it is “time to pause.” Leone proposed the national moratorium.

“We all have come to realize that more thinking is required, more information, more understanding of what we’re doing,” Leone said.

Locke’s request to the Legislature was easy, since most gambling bills had died during the session and he has the ability to veto any that survived. However, Locke’s authority to ask the state gambling commission for a pause is in question. The matter will be discussed at the commission’s May meeting.

The national commission is meeting this week to work on a report due in June. The nine-member commission is split on the word “moratorium,” with some members arguing it is vague and too drastic. The commission will take up the dispute today.

Whether labeled a moratorium or a pause, the idea addresses a common concern among commissioners that states are blindly “chasing” one another in a competition for gambling dollars.

At one point in Tuesday’s meeting, the commissioners debated which term to use to describe the relationship between governors and gambling revenue - “dependence,” “craving” or “addiction.”

After two years of work, the commission has just one more two-day session planned, in May, to wrap up its work. It has a June 18 deadline to submit a report to Congress, the president, state governments and tribal governments on the economic and social effects of legalized gambling.

The commission’s staff drafted a 247-page report. But Leone, a former New Jersey state treasurer, drafted an alternative opening chapter using what he called “much stronger” language.

Among Leone’s proposals: label pathological gambling “a pressing social issue” and recommend that states consider a moratorium. Gambling has “gone very far, very fast,” he wrote, “and it is time, at the minimum, for a pause.”

Leone has been a critic of state-sponsored gambling since the 1970s, when he opposed the ultimately successful movement to legalize casino gambling in Atlantic City.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., whose district includes Las Vegas, said the commission’s discussion reminded her “why I had reservations about a national gambling commission from the start. These are issues that are best left to the states.”

Talk of a moratorium “sends the wrong signal,” said Berkley, who attended part of the commission meeting. “It condemns an entire industry based on no rational or factual information.”

Commissioner Robert Loescher, a businessman and member of a Native American tribe in Alaska, said the draft report “ignores the fact that millions of Americans are involved in gaming for a number of reasons: for competition, for entertainment, for recreation. For Native Americans, we’ve always had gambling as part of our culture for thousands and thousands of years.”

Most if not all the commissioners agree on some overriding principles.

They say state lottery advertising should be subject to tighter scrutiny; government should spend more on compulsive gambling treatment, education and research; and casinos in destinations such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City are less troublesome than slot machines and video poker at neighborhood bars and stores.

They also agree there should be a uniform national minimum age of 21 to place bets. In some states, 18 is the minimum age to participate in certain types of gambling.

Staff writer Tracy Ellig contributed to this report.