Is there a cure for America's gambling addiction?

• Author: Horn, Bernard P.

For the first time in decades, there is a real battle over gambling policy.

Americans are familiar with the nation's major addictions: narcotics, alcohol, and tobacco. Society has spent countless millions of dollars warning about these substances, and the educational campaigns have had a profound effect.

Today, however, the fastest growing addiction in the U.S. is gambling. There are millions of adult pathological gamblers in America and, more ominous, millions of teenagers are addicted as well.

Individuals are not alone in their addiction. State governments have become hooked on the revenues derived from casinos, slot machines, keno, and lotto. Thus, instead of warning citizens, many governments are exploiting them. They ignore the social costs brought about by state-authorized gambling because they need the cash to balance their budgets--or so they believe.

Two decades ago, commercial gambling casinos were prohibited in every state except Nevada. Just 13 states had lotteries. There was no such thing as an Indian casino. Altogether, Americans wagered about $17,000,000,000 on legal commercial gambling.

Between 1976 and 1988, casinos were legalized in Atlantic City and the number of state lotteries more than doubled. Since 1988, 19 states legalized casinos and 10 legalized video poker or slot machines at racetracks and bars. All told, Americans will wager more than $550,000,000,000 on legal gambling this year--a 3,200% increase since 1976.

In 1975, the Federal government allowed state lotteries to advertise on television and radio for the first time, resulting in a flood of commercials promoting gambling. What once was considered unacceptable behavior became not only tolerated, but encouraged. As attitudes changed, so did the games. Government offered more opportunities to bet, with faster action and bigger prizes.

In 1987, the Supreme Court, in California v. Cabazan Band of Mission Indians, ruled that Native Americans, without state regulation, could offer legal gambling on Indian reservations if such games were permitted anywhere in the state, in any form. What this meant, in effect, was that if a state allowed volunteer fire departments to conduct occasional low-stakes Las Vegas nights, then an Indian tribe in that state could sponsor 24-hour, high-stakes casino gambling.

Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988. The legislation included a process for tribes to acquire new land for gambling, far from their reservations. (That is how an Indian casino appeared in downtown Milwaukee, many miles from any reservation in the state.)

With the enactment of IGRA, the commercial gambling entrepreneurs saw their opportunity. Armed with unlimited capital, gaming companies hired lobbyists to wage a campaign based on a cynical message: Since Indian gambling was coming anyway, states might as well legalize commercial casinos, which, unlike Indian casinos, they would be able to tax.

As states fell into the recession of the late 1980s, the promises of the gambling promoters were awfully seductive. Cash-starved states and municipalities, eager to boost revenue, but reluctant to raise taxes, were vulnerable to the prospect of something for nothing. In 1994, though, gambling hit a political brick wall. Opponents were becoming organized and they had a powerful weapon--the facts.

For years, lawmakers forgot why gambling was considered a "vice." In fairness to them, there weren't a lot of objective studies available on the consequences of legalized gambling. The many new gambling outlets sparked opportunities for social and...