THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260030
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Whether to invite riverboat gambling into the Old Dominion is a question that the electorate, not the legislature, should settle.
Localities where the vessels would tie up would reap substantial tax revenue, as would the state. That expectation is very appealing in a political climate hostile to tax increases. Moreover, private enterprise (the riverboats' owners and operators), not the taxpayers, would foot the bill for the boats and dockside development; no private-public partnership would be necessary.
And, goodness knows, off-the-books gambling - on sports, primarily - is a multibillion-dollar economic activity that would have long since generated tons of revenue for federal, state and local governments had it been legalized and taxed.
But gambling, no less than drinking, is repugnant to many and ruinous to a minority. Addiction to gambling has destroyed many lives and impoverished many families - and can be costly to society. Thus, the long American reluctance to legalize it.
That reluctance has lately softened. The spread of state lotteries is the most conspicuous evidence of that, with the burgeoning of riverboat gambling second. Meanwhile, the sprouting of casinos on sovereign Indian reservations is also overcoming states' resistance to casinos, floating or land-based; some states' political leaders figure there's no point in saying no to casinos when Native Americans have them.
What the proliferation of casinos will mean for the United States is anyone's guess. The market could become saturated; the bubble could burst. Casinos could damage or destroy many established businesses selling goods and services. If gambling were the boon it's cracked up to be, Atlantic City would be a paradise instead of an urban wasteland with a glittery fringe of casinos.
A small fleet of riverboat casinos in Virginia would blend into the busy tourist scene. But The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the trend is for riverboats to rarely, if ever, leave their docks in states, such as Iowa and Missouri, where they formerly cruised.
Riverboats moving in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries would be a colorful sight. But the probability that riverboats would be tethered permanently to their piers could lift few hearts. Yet, according to The Journal, in other states casino owners and customers haven't been content with tight rules requiring the boats to sail, dictating the voyage length (a few hours) and limiting patrons' losses.
Riverboat casinos tied to the shore are indistinguishable from land-based casinos. Some Virginians disposed to welcome - or at least tolerate - the former would be dismayed by the latter and are wary of the strong influence that the well-heeled gambling industry exerts upon state and local politics. The growing flotilla of noncruising riverboat casinos elsewhere validates such fears. by CNB