Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Heading into the second third of this legislative session, the casino gambling war officially is on, and opposition forces wasted no time Tuesday with words and threats. In the House, a longtime foe, Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, is preparing 40 amendments to the proposal that would let voters in dog-and-horse track counties of Hancock, Jefferson, Ohio and Kanawha vote on table games. "I have every intention to kill the bill," she declared, moments before the House version of the table measure game was officially put on the list of fresh bills. "I believe absolutely it will require a statewide vote, a change in the Constitution." Mindful a statewide vote would assuredly bury table games, industry figures are steeling themselves for this tack, one they argue isn't supported by the Constitution. But Sobonya strongly disagrees, pointing to the constitutional amendment needed to approve scratch-off games by a state-run lottery. "It's not what people envisioned when they approved of the lottery, not Las Vegas-styled casino games," she said. Republicans are divided in both chambers on the issue. In fact, the first lawmakers listed as co-sponsors in the Senate are Sens. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson, and Andy McKenzie, R-Ohio. The gambling industry is trying to use the jobs argument to brush the Constitution under the rug," Sobonya complained. "I'm here to say if they want to crack open the code, we need to make it beneficial to the state of West Virginia. If you have a West Virginia gaming industry and tracks willing to spend $50 million for a slot license in Pennsylvania, they can do it here." In the Beckley area, Ray Lambert, chairman of the West Virginia Family Foundation, sees table games as another expansion of gambling. "We've already seen the harm that gambling has done to West Virginia families in that it's a regressive tax on those who can least afford it," Lambert said. "Their hopes and dreams are placed upon winning the lottery, when, in fact, all they're doing is taking money from the families that otherwise could be used to pay bills, put clothes on their children and food on their tables." Lambert's position, mirroring that of Sobonya, is that any vote should be put before the entire state, not just the four counties directly affected, because "the negative impact" will embrace all of West Virginia, he said. As a 29-year business operator, Lambert said "it infuriates me" the state taxes businesses and individuals, and uses those dollars to compete with state businesses by promoting gambling. Lambert suggested the state abide by a long-held credo of the medical community and "do no harm" to the electorate by approving gambling legislation. Otherwise, he warned, expanding gambling through table games would merely be "breeding a new wave of addicts" whose costs will be borne by society at large.