ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601110020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LA PLATA, MD.
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE AND MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITERS
Depending on who is talking, Keno would be a standard lottery offering that would raise needed revenue or a game so addictive that some call it the lottery version of crack cocaine.
Keith Edwards sets down his after-work draft and stares up at the television monitor beside the bar at Casey Jones Restaurant and Pub.
The Keno screen silently glows blue, with a grid pattern of numbers from 1 to 80. Edwards' eyes widen in anticipation that his $1 wager could turn into a $300 jackpot.
The 30-year-old heating and air-conditioning worker seldom played Lotto when he lived in Northern Virginia. But since he moved back to southern Maryland, Edwards has become hooked on the nonstop nature of Keno.
"It's the fact that it's instant," he said. "It's a lottery every five minutes. Everybody likes instant gratification - it's the American way."
Keno would become the Virginia way within the next two years under a Virginia Lottery proposal that Gov. George Allen is counting on to help balance the 1996-98 budget.
Depending on who is talking, Keno would be a standard lottery offering that would raise needed revenue or a game so addictive that some call it the lottery version of crack cocaine.
Whether Virginia would adopt Maryland's casino-type game or a restrained version of Keno in which drawings occur daily is anyone's guess, because the Lottery Board has not yet approved the rules and officials say the details are in flux.
The uncertainty, however, has not stopped Allen from basing part of his spending plans on the estimate that Keno and a second game, Powerball, would generate about $75 million in profits over the next two years.
Nor has it prevented critics from worrying that Keno could turn some restaurants or convenience stores into mini-casinos.
"Keno is probably the most aggressive form of legalized gambling via the lottery," said John Kindt, professor of commerce and legal policy at the University of Illinois and a leading academic critic of gambling.
Kindt said that even if Virginia started out slowly with Keno, there would be mounting pressure to juice revenue by speeding up the wagering.
"Once you get Keno, you've let the genie out of the bottle," he said.
On Thursday, Allen sought to distance himself from responsibility for placing Keno and Powerball money in the budget.
"It should not be perceived that placing these figures in the budget is an endorsement of those new games, but rather a recognition" of the Lottery Board's authority to introduce new games, Allen spokesman Ken Stroupe said.
Allen would consider a proposal to limit the Lottery Board's authority and block the introduction of Powerball, Keno or both, Stroupe said.
"It represents a significant part of the budget; but if it's the will of the people and the General Assembly, we would need to find a way to close that [revenue] gap," he said.
Republican legislative leaders say they expect an anti-Keno bill to be introduced when the assembly convenes next week.
While the Lottery Board has not approved either Powerball or Keno, the lottery staff proposed - and Allen accepted - the additions as ways of meeting the lottery's mandate to raise revenue for the state.
Powerball - scheduled to begin in January 1997 - is a national lottery in which 21 states now participate. Jackpots have twice topped $100 million, and the odds of winning are 1 in 55 million - eight times Virginia's Lotto.
Even though the new game would cut into Lotto revenue, Allen estimates the net gain would be about $46 million during the 1996-98 biennium.
Lottery officials, however, acknowledge that Powerball in Virginia is not a sure thing. The state's application must be approved by two-thirds of the members of the multistate compact that runs the game. Two neighbors that have Powerball - West Virginia and the District of Columbia - may lobby to keep Virginia out. A vote is expected this spring.
"We would be competition to those two states," said Paula Otto, spokeswoman for the Virginia Lottery, "I would not be surprised if they were opposed."
While some gambling foes worry that Powerball's high stakes are addictive, they acknowledge that Keno is their larger concern.
Religious conservatives who helped elect Allen three years ago speculate that the governor's staff was so eager for new revenue that they plugged Keno money into the budget without understanding how the game works.
"To me, it's a completely different animal than Powerball, Lotto, or Pick 3," said Del. Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach. "It's like waiting in line for the slots."
Del. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, argued that Allen has endorsed neither Powerball nor Keno and was simply passing on revenue estimates from lottery officials. "Even though it adds money, it costs us so much socially that it's not worth the effort," said Forbes, an Allen confidant who says he intends to urge the governor to withdraw the lottery expansion.
Withdrawal would open a major hole in a budget that is already tightly drawn, however. The money from Powerball and Keno represents about 4 percent of the total growth in operating revenue during the biennium.
Not adding new games could also mean that lottery profits would continue at a relatively flat pace. Since 1991, when the new Lotto game caused revenues to soar, growth has stagnated at about 1 percent to 3 percent annually.
"If we are going to have better growth ... the next logical games in the progression are Powerball and Keno in terms of being good revenue generators," Otto said. "We'd be able to generate double-digit growth again, we hope."
Even though there are no specifics on how Keno would work in Virginia, Otto said lottery officials arrived at a revenue estimate by averaging the profits of states with both conservative and liberal forms of the game.
Two Lottery Board members reached this week said they were surprised by the controversy over Keno and knew little about the game, except that it would be a good revenue generator.
"We've had no discussion as to what Keno would be like. It's premature to draw any kind of conclusion, good or bad," said Joseph Stettinius, a Richmond real estate agent.
Virginia lottery officials have not decided where Kenos would be sold, other than to rule out proximity to elementary or junior high schools or video arcades, Otto said.
At Casey Jones Restaurant and Pub off U.S. 301, a few miles north of Virginia, Keno was a low-key affair among the after-work crowd Wednesday night.
Of the 20 people in the lounge, only three were playing Keno. Most people seemed oblivious to the glowing screen that flashed a new set of numbers every five minutes.
Players chose among 1 and 10 numbers. The odds vary accordingly, from 1 in 3.86 to win $1, to 1 in 8.9 million to win the top prize of $100,000.
For Mac McClellan, Keno provides another diversion to go along with the standard tavern fare of beer, cigarettes, pool and conversation.
The 33-year-old contractor said he considered the lottery too boring until Keno came along three years ago. He estimated that he spends $25 to $30 a week on the game.
"You can see what's going on and get a feel for it instantly. Throw a couple of dollars, and see how your luck is."
LENGTH: Long : 125 linesby CNB