Gambling backers offer higher cut to state

Backers of expanded gambling say they're sweetening the pot for cash-strapped state budget writers, offering a new proposal that would give state and local governments about 40 percent of the cut on electronic slot machine profits in nontribal casinos.
A previous proposal giving the state 20 percent -- about 5 cents of the 25 cents in profits on every $1 wagered -- went nowhere during the Legislature's regular session.

"I think our chances are good," Jim Springer, leader of the Entertainment Industry Coalition, said at a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Springer estimated the proposal could generate $200 million for state coffers over the next two years alone and millions more for county governments.

"The benefit of this bill is it can provide revenues," he said.

A handful of lawmakers returned to the Capitol this week in a scaled-back special session to wrestle over ways to plug a $2.6 billion state budget gap.

But Senate Republicans and Democrats have said for weeks that any gambling proposals are dead in their chamber, even if they raise money.

"You know what -- that (promise of money) makes no difference to us," fumed Sen. Darlene Fairley of Lake Forest Park, the top Democratic budget writer in the Republican-controlled Senate. "They could go to $1 billion, and we wouldn't care. It's still dead as a doornail."

Tribes that already operate electronic slots in their casinos also oppose the plan.

Some support for plan

Springer identified a handful of legislators -- including House Democratic budget writer Helen Sommers of Seattle -- who he thinks are willing to sponsor his measure as a way to generate new revenue.

His Oregon-style plan would let the state run the machines that would be purchased or leased from vendors by individual gambling outlets, he said.

Sommers just smiled when asked whether she would sponsor the measure.

Another key House Democrat, Rep. Jeff Gombosky, who leads his caucus on taxation issues, said he thinks the gambling expansion should be part of his party's tax package.

But Gombosky said he'll have to look at it before signing his name as sponsor.

Tribal-funded poll

The public won't buy it, though, according to a tribal-funded poll released Tuesday that shows voters do not want to see an expansion of gambling.

The poll, done May 7 and 8 by Public Opinion Strategies of Washington, D.C., found that 85 percent of voters opposed expansion of gambling -- regardless of whether it makes more money for the state.

The poll also found 74 percent opposed bringing new gambling into neighborhoods, and 73 percent of voters oppose an expansion of state lottery programs such as the five-minute keno drawing also under consideration by lawmakers.

The poll, released by the Washington Coalition for Tribal Self Reliance, surveyed 500 voters and had an error margin of plus or minus about 4.4 percentage points. Tribes oppose the EIC plan, claiming it will cut into their own profits, so the poll results were no surprise to the EIC.

"What I've said all along," replied Lincoln Ferris, lobbyist for the EIC, "we'll never win the sympathy vote."

Supermajority needed

As proposed, the state lottery would run the system, letting restaurants, bowling alleys, taverns and card rooms lease the machines from one of several firms that make and sell them, Springer said.

The big catch to passing the EIC plan is that as many as 60 percent of legislators in both the House and Senate might be needed to pass it. That's because it could be considered an expansion of gambling, which requires a supermajority vote under the state constitution.

Springer, a Kelso-based owner of a bowling alley and former state lawmaker, contended his proposal to allow 19,000 state-run machines is not an expansion of gambling.

That's because they would supplant many of the pull-tab and punch-card machines now used in those venues, he said.

Although the new machines would generate new sources of income, Springer said they would replace some income lost in recent years as tribal casinos added the slot machines.

Supporters, opponents

In a bid to build public support for the plan, the EIC brought a half-dozen advocates of gambling, including city council members from Fife and Chehalis, to explain how those communities' parks and fire departments can be helped by local gambling money.

And card dealer Darrell Slaughter, who works as a dealer for a card room in Fife, said the legislation could keep him on track to pay for an education -- rather than forcing his employer out of business and sending him to look for work at a tribal casino.

But Norm Maleng, the King County prosecutor and co-chairman of Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, said gambling is bad for communities.

The new proposal is bad policy that would make the state lottery a full partner with casino operators, which creates a conflict of interest, Maleng said.

"I think we ought to call this proposal for what it is: It's a last-gasp, desperate ploy on the part of the gambling coalition," Maleng said. "Every move they have made the last week or two, they have lost support in the Legislature.

"The last one was where they entered into a partnership with the WEA (Washington Education Association, the teachers' union) to tie funds to education. That partnership lasted two days. I think this is another desperate ploy they are throwing out there to keep from sinking completely."