When gambling is a click away

When gambling is a click away
By David Collins
Publication: The Day


I've written my fair share of compulsive gambling stories over the years, about people who commit suicide because of gambling debts or steal tens of thousands of dollars from employers so they can spend endless hours losing the money at poker tables or feeding it into slot machines.

And yet I think the casino industry makes a fair argument when it suggests that you shouldn't outlaw bars because there are alcoholics.

Still, I worry what will happen when endless gambling is just a click away.

At least now, to do any serious betting, you have to stub out the cigarette, get out of your jammies and drive either to a local convenience store for a scratch-off ticket or to a casino, which at least offers the pretense of other entertainment.

Anyone with any compulsive inclinations at all will almost certainly get sucked into easy, online, stay-at-home gambling, especially if it is run aggressively by the big American gambling companies.

A recent federal ruling appeared to open the door to legal Internet gambling, and already plans are under way in New Jersey to make it a reality there. The governor says he will sign a bill that is being worked on in the legislature.

Other states are closing in fast, too.

Here in Connecticut, where Gov. Dannel Malloy never saw a new tax he didn't like, it appears things are going to happen soon.

Not only has Malloy been making happy Internet gambling noises, but both Connecticut Indian gaming tribes have signaled they may be working on rolling something out.

Mohegan Tribal Chairman Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum told Politico earlier this month that the tribe has been preparing an online gaming scheme for years. He disclosed that he also met recently with Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman to pitch online poker.

"This is already happening. It just needs some regulation," he said. "Let's get things in place and catch up to the rest of the world as far as Internet gambling goes."

This reminded me of the surprise announcement, back in January 1993, from Connecticut Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. that he had signed a deal with the Mashantuckets allowing them the exclusive use of slot machines in the state, at their then tables-only casino, in exchange for 25 percent of the revenues.

That was the first weaving of a complex tapestry of legal agreements that has kept gambling in Connecticut the exclusive right of the two tribes, except for the lottery.

Adding to it, or unraveling it, would seem to be the next order of business, if Internet gambling is at the door.

Do the tribes still get exclusivity? Can the state put its lottery online? Will the tribes still pay only on slots or will they pay, too, on new online games? If an outside gaming company is allowed in, would the tribes argue that breaks their exclusivity deal?

I'd bet a lot, online or not, that these are the subjects of talks between tribal officials and Wyman and other Malloy delegates.

I think maybe Malloy is right to be poised to make sure the state is out front on this issue, as Internet gambling starts to roar out of the cage.

He rightly noted that the Internet knows no state boundaries and that Connecticut - and a gambling business here that contributes a lot to the economy and to state coffers - easily could be left behind.

On the other hand, cooler heads might prevail all around the country. The federal government could look more closely at the dangers that soon could be unleashed.

And as some here in Connecticut are already warning, letting gambling from the state migrate online could harm all the jobs in the brick and mortar gambling houses, mostly here in eastern Connecticut.

Changes in the law since Weicker's surprise deal with the Mashantuckets make a surprise Malloy deal with the tribes on Internet gambling unlikely. The legislature will need to be cut in.

Malloy, no stranger to the so-called sin taxes, is already pushing for Sunday sales of liquor, and he seems to like the idea of online gambling.

If only he could tax online pornography, maybe he woudn't raise income and sales taxes again.

This is the opinion of David Collins.