Slot Machines and Lotteries Win Election

The big winner of the November 2002 elections was legal gambling, particularly state lotteries and slot machines.

Arizona voters again shouted their approval of their state lottery, voting 73 percent-27 percent to renew it for another 10 years.

North Dakota and Tennessee finally gave in. The Peace Garden State, which had rejected a state lottery in 1986, voted to join the multistate PowerBall.

The vote in Tennessee to amend the state constitution to create a state lottery is even more significant. Legal gambling there has been off and on. Most recently, the Tennessee Legislature authorized parimutuel betting on horse races, but no track was built in time before the law automatically expired. Now that Tennessee permits a state lottery, only Hawaii and Utah are without any form of commercial or charitable gambling.

Slot machines also did very well. Arizona voters approved raising the statewide cap to 15,675 slots. In Iowa, voters in all 11 counties, where the issue was on the ballot, said yes to keeping their casinos and racinos. A contentious battle in Idaho ended, temporarily, at the polls, when voters approved letting tribes have 3,000 video lottery terminals. Lawsuits, over the question of whether VLTs are really forbidden slot machines, were already being drawn up as the votes were counted.

Gambling won big, even when it was not on the ballots. In Maryland, Republican Rep. Robert Erlich Jr. won the governor's race, replacing rabidly anti-gambling Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Erlich has publicly stated that the state's tracks should get gaming devices, to compete against those in nearby Delaware. He defeated Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who opposed racinos.

New Yorkers re-elected Republican Gov. George Pataki, who has become a strong advocate of Indian casinos and of installing gaming devices at racetracks. Gambling could not lose in Pennsylvania. Both candidates for governor support the idea of racinos. The Democrat, Ed Rendell, who was the more pro-gambling, won.

Tribes in California may have been the biggest winners, not because their favored candidate, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis won, but because he did so poorly. Having spent $68 million, Gov. Davis still could not get a majority of the vote, and only edged out his Republican opponent.

But his near loss will not prevent him from running for president in 2004. To do that, he needs lots of campaign donations, and he is notorious for giving his contributors what they want.

In addition, Gov. Davis is desperate to find new revenue to solve California's budget deficit of more than $10 billion.

For a few million dollars in campaign contributions and a promise to share their casino revenue, California's tribes can easily double the $5 billion a year they now take in.

Professor I. Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on gambling law. His website is www.GamblingAndTheLaw.com.