Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Expect to hear a lot about gambling expansion in the coming months. West Virginia's four racetrack casinos should make another push in the Legislature for local option elections to allow table games. They want people in the four counties with racinos -- Kanawha, Ohio, Hancock and Jefferson -- to vote on allowing games such as blackjack, poker and roulette along with the slot machines they have now. Gambling supporters will argue that West Virginia is about to fall behind in the arms race for gaming entertainment dollars. It's an argument West Virginians should be very wary of. On Tuesday of last week, Pennsylvania's first slot casino opened for business. According to The Associated Press, hundreds of gamblers, mostly senior citizens who had waited hours in a foggy drizzle, poured into the casino near Wilkes-Barre. Most of the 1,100 slot machines were occupied within 10 minutes of the doors opening. Gov. Ed Rendell praised the casino's opening as an important step in delivering property tax relief. Opponents of gambling expansion predicted an increase in crime and other social problems. The Pennsylvania Legislature has authorized as many as 61,000 slot machines at 14 locations. Meanwhile, gambling supporters in Maryland hope Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley will be more successful in bringing legal slots to that state than outgoing Gov. Robert Erlich has been. O'Malley opposes casino gambling and favors only a limited number of slot machines at tracks, and even then mainly to preserve the horse racing industry and the farms that support it, according to the AP. Maryland track owners say they are hurt by competition from tracks in Delaware and West Virginia, which also have slots. That sounds similar to what the racetrack casino owners in West Virginia say about the upcoming competition from Pennsylvania slot casinos.

In at least one case, a casino owner is protecting itself by investing in both states. MRT Gaming Group Inc., which owns Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort in Hancock County, has an $80 million slot casino under construction near Erie, Pa.

So the pressure for West Virginia to get ahead in this gambling version of an arms race will be there for legislators this coming year. It might be out in the open. It might be behind the scenes. But a lot of arm-twisting will be going on.

Nothing we have heard leads us to change our position on table games. The topic needs a full debate. It must be discussed statewide, because the benefits and the social costs will be felt statewide. It requires a statewide vote.

Together, the counties with the four tracks with slots have about 18 percent of the state's population. That is too small a group to make such a large decision for everyone. Anyway, what happens at a racetrack casino in one county affects neighboring counties. Most of Cabell County is closer to the Cross Lanes racetrack than parts of Kanawha County are.

Earlier this month, Ohio voters turned down a proposal to have slot casinos in their state. The result is not as important as the fact that people everywhere got to vote on this important issue. West Virginia voters -- all of them -- deserve that shame chance.

Expanding gambling is an important decision that goes beyond jobs and tourism dollars. It deals with who we want to be and what we want our state to be. That's too much for the people of four counties to decide.