Stacked deck

The National Gambling Impact Study Commission was established by Congress in 1996 to objectively assess the economic benefits and social costs wrought by the explosive growth of the gaming industry – commercial and tribal casinos, river boats, state lotteries, pari-mutuel wagering on racing and jai-alai, charity gambling, Internet gambling, video gambling and sports betting.

The nine-member commission, chosen by the White House and Congress, consisted of one pediatrician, two academics, three economic-development types and three casino reps (two execs, one a labor leader). Those casino execs not serving on the commission kept themselves busy by writing checks – their $6.3 million in soft money and PAC contributions in the last two years nearly equaled the total for the previous eight.

Want to bet on how this turns out?

After spending $5 million on hearings and data gathering, the commission released its final report last week. Here’s what changed since the last government review of gambling in the USA, more than 20 years ago: The number of gambling venues increased tenfold (37 states have lotteries, 28 have casinos, 43 have pari-mutuel betting); the amount Americans spend on legal wagering grew by nearly 1,600 percent, to $47 billion; the commercial casino industry expanded from a strip in Las Vegas to a coast-to-coast giant with more than 284,000 employees and a payroll of more than $21 billion.

Oh sure, there are problems, and not just that Americans spend more on gambling than they do on clothes, cars, books, movies or groceries. Some 15 million Americans may be compulsive gamblers. The social costs of their self-destructive behavior – bankruptcy, divorce and the like – may be as high as $40 billion. Gambling as a percentage of income doubled. Teen gambling is an epidemic. Sports betting, illegal everywhere but Nevada and Oregon, is rampant; its effect upon high school and college athletics is unknown. While some downtrodden communities have revived with casinos, other places have seen their once-vibrant downtowns, with restaurants, shops and theaters, wither as the slots gobble all the cash.

But the commission — big surprise here — saved its loudest alarm, and nearly all of its regulatory recommendations, for the non-casino games. Internet gambling is a scourge that should be banned. It’s time for a crackdown on the proliferation of “convenience gambling” devices in neighborhood stores, such as video poker machines. State-run lotteries are the worst, most predatory, game around — long odds, big rake, misleading advertising and an unfair “official” stamp of approval.

And, just in time for the vastly overbuilt casino industry to catch its breath and recoup its investments, the commission suggests a moratorium of indeterminate length on the further expansion of gambling venues.

This sham started out as a worthy endeavor. The idea of forming an independent commission to conduct a thorough, factual and dispassionate evaluation of gambling was the result of an unlikely alliance between religious conservatives concerned about moral fiber and community activists worried about social fabric. The taxpayers wagered $5 million that the White House and Congress could do this without favors and payoffs. The taxpayers have always been such rubes.