BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS - Sitting elbow to elbow during a hearing of the Indiana Gaming Impact Study Commission on Thursday, casino employees and anti-gambling activists weighed addiction and crime against economic and development gains.
They agreed social harms must be fought and that poorer towns deserve a chance at revitalization.
But, with voices rising, they split over whether gambling is responsible for either one.
Although the commission, chartered by Gov. Frank O'Bannon, is examining the effects that all types of gambling have on the state, the debate centered on the newest and most visible - riverboat casinos. The commission's report will be completed in December 1999.
Many of the 120 participants at the hearing work for casino companies. Others are officials from the riverboat towns that have greatly benefited from casino tax revenue.
"Our school was falling down. Our town was in trouble," said Lisa White-Nobbe, a tourism official in Rising Sun, home to Grand Victoria Casino and Resort. "This was our last shot at being a self-sustaining community."
Lawrenceburg Mayor Melvin Gabbard, whose city is home to Argosy Casino, the nation's most successful riverboat, said people in riverboat communities approved the boats by referendums. If they hadn't done so, the casinos likely would have opened someplace else - and Lawrenceburg would have lost out.
"If I drank or smoked or anything else, if I can't find it in my community, I'm going to go somewhere else."
Five boats operate on Lake Michigan in the Chicago area, and five casinos more are licensed to cruise the Ohio River in southern Indiana: Argosy, Grand Victoria, Casino Aztar in Evansville; Caesars Indiana's Glory of Rome, to open next week in Bridgeport; and Hollywood Park-Boomtown, which is to open in mid-2000 in Switzerland County.
Those who oppose gambling say it is not just a form of entertainment, that it also preys upon people with the tendency toward addiction. They say the cost of treating those people and providing them with welfare and other social programs outweigh the benefits of gambling tax revenue.
"It creates addiction by its very nature. You can't help it," said John Wolf, Indiana coordinator of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "I don't want the state of Indiana helping people have problems. I want them to help people not have problems."
While officials in riverboat towns say they had once feared an increase in crime and other social problems, that has not materialized. According to police, the biggest problem has been drunken driving. Floyd Coates, chairman of Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, said he doubts the commission's report will have much effect on the state, even if it concludes that gambling is harmful. The riverboats are already licensed, and the state and counties are growing dependent upon their tax revenue.
"'The study is of little value. I'm almost expecting a whitewash and a justification," he said. "Isn't it too late to get rid of gambling, if the study says it's bad for us?"
