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Racing Commission To Take Up Gambling Expansion Debate July 13, 2003
DES MOINES --- The debate over whether to expand gambling in Iowa moves this week to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which will begin discussions Friday about whether to lift a 5-year-old ban on new riverboat casino licenses.
Commission Chairman Michael Mahaffey, a Montezuma attorney, can't predict what the five-member commission will do, but he said Iowans should not expect a quick decision.
It likely will be October before any serious discussion or a decision takes place, he said. Iowans have made it clear they want to talk about it, Mahaffey noted. "I haven't had to make this many phone calls since I ran for Congress," he joked.
In the past three weeks, voters in Palo Alto and Worth counties have approved referenda by wide margins to allow gaming in their communities. In Dickinson County, voters were equally decisive in turning down gaming. As many as five other communities may consider a vote.
"What that shows is, obviously, a division," Mahaffey said. "Some places really want it and some places really don't want it," he said.
Gov. Tom Vilsack has said he wants to see how all of the referenda turn out in the communities considering the issue before he expresses any opinion to the commission, spokesman Matt Paul said.
Mahaffey and Jack Ketterer, executive director of the commission, both say the Legislature should address broader policy issues, such as how much gambling should be allowed in the state.
Mahaffey and other gaming officials, legislators, casino industry representatives and anti-gambling activists all say there are key questions to be answered before a decision to grant new licenses is made. Many involved in the issue agree on the questions, even if they disagree on what should be the answer.
Economic impact
Everyone agrees the commission needs to study the economic impact of granting more casino licenses.
"We recommended that we should look at allowing the industry to grow in areas that are underserved. And so that's what really needs to be defined, is what is underserved," said Wes Ehrecke of the Iowa Gaming Association, which represents the casino industry.
Senate Minority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Council Bluffs Democrat who served on a panel that studied economic issues related to gambling earlier this year, said it's not the commission's job to ensure the success of existing casinos. But, he said, it "makes sense for the commission to do a decent study of what the marketplace would bear."
Robert Miller, an anti-gambling activist from Muscatine, agreed a study should be done, but he urged commissioners to also look at the economic impact of problem gambling on families and communities.
"We would certainly support doing a complete economic study to determine whether expansion is good or bad for the economy and for the families of Iowa," he said. "We already know it's not good for the families, but we do need to study this issue before we expand it," he said.
Ketterer said concern about saturation of the state's gaming market was one of the reasons the commission approved the moratorium in the first place.
At the time, the panel was in the process of considering the state's first riverboat casino on an inland waterway --- the Lakeside Casino and Resort on West Lake in Clarke County. With 35 lakes in the state larger than West Lake, commissioners knew many other communities might want in on the action, Ketterer said. That concern remains today, he said.
Legislative debate
A host of gambling-related issues could end up waiting on the Legislature's doorstep next January if the commission gets serious about lifting the moratorium.
Whether riverboats should have to continue to cruise --- a law that currently could disqualify some communities with shallow lakes and narrow rivers - is only one example of the related issues that only legislators could resolve, Ketterer said.
Sen. Jeff Lamberti, R-Ankeny, suggested this year that the state charge a fee for new licenses as a way to generate millions of dollars for the struggling state budget. That idea could resurface if new licenses become a possibility, regulators say.
Rep. Scott Raecker, an Urbandale Republican, said he'd like to reopen discussion of penalties for underage gamblers, the access to credit in casinos and the gambler's treatment issue.
It's time, he said, "to get a lot of information and get people informed and have a good, honest, civil debate on the issues that are out there."
Other lawmakers, however, including Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iverson,
R-Dows, would prefer the commission decide what to do about the moratorium
and limit legislative debate to gaming tax issues.
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