Gambling breeds corruption No kidding!

Expert: Gambling breeds corruption
Industry influence too great, he says


Allowing expanded gambling in New Hampshire will increase the risk of government corruption, an expert told the state Gaming Study Commission yesterday.

"There's a potential addiction of elected officials to money given to their campaigns by gaming officials," said James Browning, director of development for the advocacy group Common Cause in Pennsylvania at a press conference before the commission meeting.

Browning was one of three experts the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling brought to the commission to talk about the negative effects of gambling. The others were Earl Grinols, a Baylor University economist, and Kevin Harrigan, a professor at the University of Waterloo/Ontario who studies game design and slot machine addiction.

Browning said once a state allows gambling, there is no way to curb the industry's influence. "Once the gaming industry takes root, it grows deeper quickly because of a relationship with elected officials," he said.

In Maryland, Browning said he found people connected to the gambling industry giving campaign donations above the legal limits and setting up dummy corporations to give more money to officials. In Pennsylvania, he said, gambling passed through the legislature without a public hearing, then was upheld by the state Supreme Court. Gaming officials had given money to three of the state's justices, he said.

"The industry includes multibillion-dollar corporations with the ability to outspend local opposition 100 to 1," Browning said, with money going to ads, lobbying and campaign contributions.

Jim Rubens, chairman of the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling, cited one study by the National Institute of Money in State Politics that found that in eight referendums on gambling in 2008, the gambling industry spent 48 times more than the opposition.

"We're concerned politicians will be overwhelmed by one particular industry," Browning said.

A bill that would have allowed expanded gambling in New Hampshire, which was passed by the state Senate in June as part of the 2010 and 2011 budget, would have included a ban on political contributions from the gaming industry. Rich Killion, a spokesman for Millennium Gaming, which wants to bring video slot machines to Rockingham Park, said Millennium welcomed the ban.

"I find it insulting they allege that elected officials will be impacted by any industry," Killion said.

But Browning said when Pennsylvania tried to institute a ban on gaming industry contributions, the ban was thrown out in court, which ruled that limiting campaign contributions from a specific industry is limiting free speech.

The possibility of corruption has generally not played a large role in legislative discussions of gambling.

State Sen. Kathy Sgambati, a Tilton Democrat who voted in favor of expanded gambling, said this was the first she has heard of concern that gambling would lead to more government corruption.

"Clearly, people are limited in how much they can contribute," Sgambati said. "I have a hard time conceiving of the gambling industry controlling the legislators."

State Rep. Neal Kurk, a Weare Republican who opposed the expanded gambling bill, said he was not concerned with monetary corruption so much as with legislators and their family members being employed by the gambling industry, in the way many were the railroad industry in the 1930s through the 50s. Kurk said he also worries that a large percentage of general fund revenue would be contributed by a small number of companies, which would then have enormous leverage.

"A small number of individuals could have a disproportionately large impact and influence on the state Legislature," Kurk said.

In addition to the corruption argument, the coalition presented the study commission with 23 reasons why it opposes gambling, including increased gambling addictions, suicides and crime.

Grinols argued that the cost of gambling is greater than the benefits. "The money it takes in is predominantly from the local community," he said. He said between one-third and one-half of gambling revenue comes from "problem and pathological gamblers."

Harrigan focused on the design of the machines, which are weighted against players. He described slot machines as the "crack cocaine of gambling."

Killion said studies prove that 2 percent of the population has gambling addictions. At the commission meeting, commission members cited studies indicating that the number of people with gambling problems in New Hampshire could be closer to 1 percent.

Killion said the affect of gambling on crime in other areas across the country has been "marginal."