Gambling On A Fiscal Solution Isn’t Something To Bet On
This Week’s Attitude
By Neil S. Friedman

In the last few years, the allure of poker has dramatically spiraled. It’s suddenly the hottest game in town and seems to be more pervasive than bingo ever was. Unfortunately, it is reportedly the fastest growing form of entertainment on college campuses across the nation.

No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em has emerged as the trendiest variety of casino poker. It gained a wider audience ever since the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker have been televised on ESPN, exposing the game to that network’s young, impressionable audience.

Supplementing the poker hype are celebrity players who compete against each other on a cable television program for a piece of the $250,000 prize pool that goes to a charity of their choice. It’s philanthropic and undemanding for participants; however, it encourages gambling to those who may be vulnerable and should not risk losing their own money.

While Las Vegas, Atlantic City and more recently, Connecticut, have been domestic destinations for gamblers, New York State is poised to become the next state to sanction casino gambling.

Late last year, an Indian land-claim agreement cleared the way for Catskill casinos — if the state and federal legislature approve. Governor Pataki and the chief of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma signed the accord that settles the tribe’s New York land claim, and establishes a Catskills casino. They hope to get the required approvals that will open the door to establish the first of at least three casinos in the region about 90 miles north of the city.

Supporters argue that Catskill casinos would increase tourism with a projected 30 million visitors annually, provide revenue for the state’s depleted treasury and rejuvenate the economically hard hit region that was once a summer tourist Mecca.

Critics say casinos will be a magnet for crime and corruption and invite those who can least afford it to gamble away their earnings for an impossible dream.

Albany currently budgets about $300,000 a year to deal with compulsive gambling problems, which is certain to multiply when casino gambling in New York emerges as a multibillion industry. The Ame-rican Psychiatric Association considers compulsive gambling an impulse control disorder

What the governor failed to address — or simply ignore — is the potential for gambling problems, especially among younger people, that is already a local phenomenon.

Earlier this year a Daily News story cited a 20 percent increase for Brooklyn gamblers and 45 percent for the city. That figure, which includes a surge among females and teenagers, represents those who had the courage to contact the state’s gambling crisis hotline. However, it doesn’t account for gamblers who did not call, likely believing they didn’t have a problem or could prevail on their own like most addicts.

Even the average person knows that habitual gambling can have a negative impact on the lives of those who wager and their families. Legalized gambling is generally viewed as an innocuous, entertaining vice, if one bets, as the old Off Track Betting ad suggested, with “one’s head, not over it.”

Gambling is as old as the Bible, which has a few references to it, as do early historical records. It was, for a short time in 19th century America, a form of revenue for state and local governments, mostly in the form of authorized lotteries. But, like Prohi-bition, when it was banned, it remained active, only to return as a revenue source in the 1960s.

When New York introduced the state lottery years ago it was supposed to bolster education revenues. But, as we now know, New York City never got its fair share — and probably never will — despite an ongoing lawsuit that ordered the governor to double state education aid. Raising taxes seems a logical choice to solve the dilemma, but its something politicians are reluctant to do, so the state is hoping to bolster the treasury with prospective gambling assets.

For the majority who gamble, and stick to a budget, it is a satisfying social diversion even knowing the odds are always with the house. Nevertheless, for the few who become addicted, it develops into a devastating dilemma when they wager beyond their means.

The idea that legal gambling is a solution to the any government’s economic woes is a delusion. It’s quite convenient to sanction this victimless vice, however, these same governments must then create and sustain social programs to help turn around the lives of the addicted.

If legalized gambling is the only remedy politicians can furnish to solve fiscal woes, it’s a sad commentary on their attitude and wisdom.

When it comes to gambling there’s one thing to remember — if it wasn’t for bad luck, gamblers would have no luck at all. And that’s something you CAN bet on!