State tosses dice on gambling

This legislative session, momentum built like never before to find a permanent way to pay for treatment of the state's growing numbers of problem gamblers.

But not only did the issue fail, the state is now facing two of the largest efforts to expand gambling since the late 1990s.

OUT OF LUCK: Washington's Gambling Problem

Part 1: As legalized gambling has grown in Washington, so has the number of problem gamblers and their effects on society.
- Odds in house's favor
- Addiction nearly tore family apart

Part 2: At casinos and card rooms in Washington, a large proportion of those trying their luck are Asian. And the industry knows that well.
- 'Gambling just took over my life'

Part 3: What the state and gambling industry are -- or aren't -- doing to address problem gambling.
- In Oregon, $3 million a year for treatment

Gov. Gary Locke is weighing whether to sign a bill to legalize Internet and telephone betting on horse racing. And anti-tax activist Tim Eyman is pushing an initiative to allow slot machines into private card rooms to pay for a property tax cut.

Should the efforts succeed, legalized gambling could double in Washington -- and the ranks of problem gamblers, and the attendant social costs, would also swell.

"If this state won't pay anything for treatment, they can't be considering expanding gambling," said Jennifer McCausland, a former state deputy insurance commissioner who was one of the main lobbying forces in Olympia to reinstitute treatment funding.

In light of the failure of the main bill on problem gambling, McCausland said yesterday, she and her main legislative sponsor, Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, will meet with Locke tomorrow to discuss various remedies.

Gambling revenues in Washington grew to more than $1.3 billion last year, more than double the revenues reported in 1998. At the same time, problem gambling has grown at a similar clip, adding about $78 million a year to the state's social costs.

But Washington does nothing to treat the problem gamblers it has helped create by allowing legalized gambling to flourish. A successful, $500,000 treatment program funded by the Washington State Lottery's Mega Millions game was instituted in late 2002, but the money ran out last June.


	P-I
Jennifer McCausland wants more help for problem gamblers.

McCausland -- who also plans soon to announce a campaign to fight Eyman's initiative -- and Gary Hanson of the Washington State Council on Problem Gambling were among those who fought strenuously up until the last day of the session to devise a permanent funding source for the treatment program.

The House nearly unanimously passed a bill under which the Washington State Gambling Commission would have provided $500,000 for treatment of problem gambling for one year, while a task force would have been created to devise a permanent funding mechanism.

But a little-noticed, last-minute amendment mandating that half of the money for the program come from private card rooms and the other half from the state's tribes caused big problems in the Republican Senate.

Sen. Jim Honeyford, chairman of the Senate Commerce and Trade Committee, wouldn't move the bill -- which he recently called "defective" -- out of his committee.

The tribes can't be forced to contribute through the Gambling Commission, Honeyford said, because of their sovereign nation status. And his efforts to persuade them voluntarily to pay their share failed, he said.

The Gambling Commission also objected, noting in a March 4 letter to legislators that the money they receive from the tribes are payments for regulation -- as stipulated in their state compacts -- and cannot be used for other purposes.

Honeyford said that he's in favor of re-establishing a treatment program but that all sides should contribute a proportionate amount.

Honeyford said he'll hold a hearing on the matter July 26 with all the parties to try to begin crafting a solution.

"I'm disappointed and unhappy," said Rep. Alex Wood, vice chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee and a proponent of money to treat problem gambling. "I really thought we had it this time. But time after time after time, this thing just dies."

Wood attributes the bill's failure to Senate Republicans. "It's that conservative with a small 'c' attitude that government already does too much for people," he said.

Hanson, of the problem gambling council, said he is confident that with increasing awareness of the issue, next year will be the year legislation passes.

"Are we hopeful? You're damn right," said Hanson. "We're going to make something happen."

While legislators let money for treatment die, they quietly passed -- by wide margins -- another bill that would allow Internet and telephone horse race betting.

The bill would also allow 24-hour betting on races from around the world at Emerald Downs in Auburn, the state's main thoroughbred venue and the primary backer of the legislation -- more than doubling the hours the track is allowed to be open.

The bill would further permit the state's 21 off-track betting sites to offer "simulcast" racing year-round. Currently, those sites can offer those races only during the Emerald Downs season.

The bill would give a cut of the gambling proceeds to the state's Horse Racing Commission, as well as horse breeders and track owners.

Dick Van Wagenen, a policy adviser to Locke, said the governor hasn't yet decided if he'll sign the bill.

"It's one of the most difficult decisions" he faces before the April 1 deadline to sign or veto bills, Van Wagenen said.

On the one hand, Van Wagenen said, "it's a significant expansion of gambling," something Locke has generally opposed. On the other, horse racing is an important state industry, he said.

Emerald Downs has lost money the past two years, officials there have said.

Washington voters may also be faced with a tough decision come November, should anti-tax crusader Eyman gain enough signatures to put his initiative on the ballot.

Eyman's proposed ballot measure would raise money to slash property taxes by about $400 million by allowing as many electronic "slot" machines into private card rooms throughout the state as the tribes have been allocated.

Currently, the state's tribes operate about 14,500 of those machines in their casinos.

By Eyman's estimate, the machines would generate $1.1 billion annually in net revenues for the card rooms -- almost doubling the total gambling net receipts earned last year in Washington. Under the measure, 35 percent of that would go toward tax relief.

Eyman is also quick to note that an additional 1 percent of those revenues -- or $11 million -- would go toward a problem-gambling prevention and treatment program run by the Department of Social and Health Services.

"I think it's a big selling point of the initiative," Eyman said.

P-I reporter Sam Skolnik can be reached at 206-448-8176 or samskolnik@seattlepi.com

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