Wichita's gambling vote will affect the entire state

The Aug. 7 vote on gambling in Sedgwick County will have statewide consequences. Voters will decide if Wichita's dog track will be allowed slot machines and whether a casino will be built in the city at some location to be decided after the election.

As the state's largest city, Wichita serves a wide swath of Kansas as a health care, shopping, entertainment and business center. Thousands of Kansans commute to the city every working day to their jobs in its aircraft factories and other businesses and industries. Its population gives it significant political clout in the Legislature and at every statewide election. For years now, Wichita and Sedgwick County voters have determined who will hold the 4th District congressional seat.

How Sedgwick Countians vote on gambling will have a big impact on what the image of Kansas will be for years to come.

The editorial board of The Wichita Eagle took a hard look at these things and in its Sunday editorial advised readers to vote "no." "No" to slot machines at Wichita Greyhound Park; "no" to a casino in the city or anywhere else in the county.

Gambling as an industry won't help Wichita meet its long-range goals, the editorial argued, and would, in fact, distract city leaders from staying focused on creating a better, more stable and prosperous community.

Gambling, it noted, may be an appropriate industry for desperate communities that have no other hope to turn to, but Wichita doesn't fit that description. It is strong, vibrant, full of promise and can make a better future without slots and a casino than with them.

Sound arguments, one and all.

There is nothing in the American experience that ties casinos and slot machines to the building of outstanding cities, and much that pairs slot machines, roulette, blackjack and poker with higher crime rates, higher welfare costs and individual disasters.

On the other hand, gambling creates jobs, provides tax income to state and local governments and offers entertainment that many find enjoyable and nonthreatening. Gambling houses have operated legally in a very large number of nations around the globe for hundreds of years because they satisfy an urge to get something for nothing that is an enduring human trait, because they salve the urge to take risks in a relatively harmless way and because many are attracted by the carnival atmosphere that casinos and banks of slot machines provide.

Some cynical voters will also vote for legal gambling because it provides tax dollars that only gamblers pay.

On Aug. 7, the contest between these conflicting viewpoints will be given an acid test. Every public opinion poll taken to date has shown majority support for slots and casinos in the state. But when voters pull the curtain closed and mark their ballots, the principled arguments made in the Sunday Eagle may pull "no" votes from many who are still agonizing over this very important decision for Kansas.

Florida gaming score: Tribes, $1.6 billion; state, zero

It's noon on a recent Monday and "Glory Days" is pulsing through the speakers at the Seminole Hard Rock Resort and Casino.

The rhythm beats against the flashing lights of more than 2,000 so-called "bingo slots."

The Seminole and Miccosukee tribes are bending gaming rules to their limits with the bingo slots, which look and act a lot like regular slot machines, and making a fortune — $1.6 billion last year alone. And the state of Florida does not get a cent.

That could happen in Massachusetts if the Mashpee Wampanoag make good on a threat to open a bingo slots facility should state lawmakers fail to legalize Class III gaming, which allows for full-blown casinos.

The tribe is asserting its right to build a bingo slots casino with the same electronic machines on which Florida's Seminole, and the Miccosukee Tribe, have built their respective empires. The Wampanoag say they can do this because bingo, a Class II game, is legal in Massachusetts.

Nationally, five states offer only Class II gaming. But Class II revenue grew last year at a faster rate than revenue from casino gaming — Class III. About 90 percent of Class II revenue growth came from Florida, according to Alan Meister's Indian Gaming Industry Report.

If full casino gambling — traditional slot machines and table games — were legalized in the Bay State, Massachusetts officials would be required under federal law to negotiate a gaming compact with the its two federally recognized tribes. And it would be during those negotiations that the tribes could agree to give the state a cut of the action.

Examples abound. In Michigan, municipalities get 2 percent of tribal gaming revenue from Class III machines through a 1993 agreement between tribes and the state. Under a further agreement with other tribes in 1998, 8 percent of revenue from the machines goes to the state, in addition to the 2 percent to towns. Last year, those contributions totaled $20 million.

And while the Seminole have no revenue-sharing agreement with the state, it does compensate one of its host cities. When the tribe built a casino in Coconut Creek, it agreed to pay the city $1 million a year. That was recently increased to $1.6 million a year.

When Florida refused to let the Seminole open Class III casinos, the tribe turned to bingo slots. It now operates seven such casinos, which are largely responsible for the tribe's success.

Class II gaming was originally designed to include high-stakes bingo when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988. But advances in technology have blurred the distinction between bingo and slots.

Bingo slots are rigged so players play against each other — not against the house, as with traditional slots — but the experience is still typical of a Las Vegas casino. Row upon row of tall metal machines with bright flashing lights and rolling sevens line the casino floor.

The Seminole casinos have no table games such as blackjack or roulette, but most casino revenues — more than 70 percent — come from slot machines. Had Florida officials negotiated for 25 percent of slot and table game revenue generated at Indian-run casinos, last year the state would have received almost $400 million.

No compact is required under Class II gaming, however. As all seven Seminole casinos are on reservation land, the tribe does not pay property taxes.

Now, almost 30 years after the Seminole opened their first high-stakes bingo hall, the state of Florida has finally realized it's time to negotiate.

Under Florida law, pari-mutuel facilities are allowed to offer traditional Class III slot machines, but in only one county. The Seminole, however, are asserting their right to do the same.

The tribe is arguing that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act gives them the right to offer any level of gambling that is legal in the state of Florida.

The Class III slots are expected to give the tribe a big financial boost, because casino gaming generates much more revenue. While Florida's eight bingo slot casinos brought in $1.6 billion in gaming revenue last year, Connecticut's two full gaming casinos brought in $2.5 billion.

Trinidad says no to casinos and slot machines

The Trinidad & TobagoGovernment is totally against the operation of casinos and all associated businesses, Conrad Enill, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, said earlier this week as debate on the Finance Bill 2007 began in the Senate.

Among a slew of provisions in the Bill is a clause that will officially make it illegal to import slot machines.

"These provisions define slot machines and tokens; removing any ambiguity as well as ensuring that slot machines are considered gambling machines," Enill told Senate President Linda Baboolal as he laid the bill for its second reading.

Enill said: "Accordingly, this measure will enforce the ban on the importation of slot machines with took effect from March 1, 2007, and will reiterate the position of the Government."

Once passed, the amendment will not immediately seal the fate of private members clubs, which offer slot machines as one of their main attractions.

Enill explained that the clubs will "continue to be able to operate within the parameters of the law", and he reiterated statements made previously by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that dialogue with the club owners will continue.

"On this basis the legislation provides this amendment will not be effective unless proclaimed," Enill pointed out.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives on June 13, and had been introduced in the Senate last Monday. In addition to amending the Gambling and Betting Act, it also makes provisions for statutory increases in pensions, increasing the spending limits of the Chief Administrator of the Tobago House of Assembly, and also the elimination of customs duties on computer peripherals and certain types of telecommunications equipment.

Giving an account of the country's economic performance since the PNM took office, Enill admitted that while inflation was "the primary macro-economic challenge that faced Government", it was being brought under control and now stood at 7.9 per cent.

More jobs and businesses were being created and existing businesses were expanding to employ more people, he said.

Woodlands to get 800 slot machines

The Woodlands will get 800 slot machines, the Kansas Lottery Commission decided Wednesday.

That’s the same as a race track in Wichita. A track in southeast Kansas will get 600 slots.

The allocation was part of the rules and regulations adopted unanimously Wednesday by the commission, which said an additional 600 slots can be distributed by the lottery’s executive director, once the management contracts take effect.

Slots at the tracks were put in place by a gambling law enacted this year that also calls for four resort-style casinos in the state.