Back in the early 1950s, a young U.S. Army private watched his fellow enlisted soldiers transform their troop ship into a traveling casino. Dice and card games became the norm, he recalls. The games could last around the clock, building up enormous stakes and keeping the players from getting much sleep.

If there was one lesson the army private learned during his overseas journey, it was this: Gambling's appeal, particularly for the idle, is intense.

In the decades since, the young private moved on to become U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. Gambling, meanwhile, moved from the confines of basements and army ships to become one of the biggest legal industries in the United States — one that draws millions of dollars in tax revenue for states like Illinois.

Now, in light of everything he has learned about gambling, Sen. Simon has proposed establishing a commission to study the role of gambling in the United States and its potential problems and payoffs. Simon and Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana who is seeking his party's presidential nomination in 1996, have introduced legislation to create a gambling commission that would last 18 months and operate on a $250, 000 budget. "Local governments, Indian tribes and states — all desperate for revenue — increasingly are turning to what appears to be a quick and easy solution:legalized gambling," Simon wrote in a report to his Senate colleagues. "And, temporarily, it often works."

Last year, Illinois pulled in some of the highest tax revenues from legal gaming in the country. In fiscal year 1995, taxes and license fees on Illinois' 10 riverboats brought more than $267 million to state coffers, according to the state's Department of Revenue. A year earlier, the state earned $202 million from riverboats; the year before that, it earned just over $89 million.

Whether that upward trend continues will depend partly on the performance of riverboats in surrounding states. In 1994, boats in Iowa brought in $18.6 million in gaming tax receipts and $776, 467 in tax proceeds from admissions, according to the New York-based North American Gaming Report. These proceeds are

8/November 1995/ Illinois Issues

Due to the potential for such huge public revenues, Simon says, it's not practical to wish for abolition of legalized gambling. "My political assessment," he says, "is that is not possible."

But restraint is, Simon suggests. And he offers a few specific limits that could help curb gambling growth. For one, he says any new gambling enterprise established after a certain date could be required to pay a tax of 5 percent on its gross revenue. Those already in the field could support this proposal, he says, in hopes it would prevent saturation of the market.

Another suggestion would make states, Indian tribes and local governments that do not have any form of legalized gambling eligible for per capita revenue-sharing assistance.

A third proposal, credited to U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, a Louisiana Republican, would require lotteries to meet Federal Trade Commission truth-in-advertising standards, from which they now are exempt. Such regulation would prevent lotteries from using such advertising slogans as, "We won't stop until everyone's a millionaire."

The commission is needed, Simon insists, in light of high-tech gambling opportunities that will surface in the near future. Cable television and the Internet are two venues that could become virtual gaming parlors.

With access to gambling becoming easier — and with gaming supplying larger chunks of public revenue — it should not surprise anyone that a federal commission is being proposed. But its conclusions could start battles between those who want restraint and those who have come to depend on gambling revenues.

Things have come a long way since Simon's days of shipboard poker games. We have a long way to go, though, before we settle the question of gambling as a form of government subsidy. 

Items expected to land on legislature's fall veto session agenda
In the absence of many significant gubernatorial vetoes to deal with this fall, politicos have turned their attention to power struggles between House and Senate Republican leaders. Lines of communication between House Speaker Lee Daniels and Senate President James "Pate" Philip reportedly have frayed, with Daniels wanting to take up such weighty matters as workers comp legislation during the brief veto session and Philip wanting to pack up and leave as soon as possible.

Daniels outlined a workers comp anti-fraud package in late September, including:
• creating a felony charge for filing a false workers compensation claim, which would carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and a $10, 000 fine;
• creating a felony charge for helping another worker file a false claim;
• increasing felony charges if a person files multiple false claims;
• creating a felony charge against employers who falsify information on workers compensation forms. Other issues that may come up include:
• the insolvent leaking underground storage tank fund. Many Republicans want to bail out this fund, which reimburses gas station owners for environmental cleanups, by leveling an extra $60 fee on each 7, 500 gallons of fuel sold. Democrats managed to kill the bailout during the spring by calling it a tax levy to help private businesses.
• the state's bonding authority for financing prison and school projects. Illinois needs $129 million in new borrowing for construction projects. Opponents declined approving this authority during the spring, saying the state's fiscal house is in poor shape. They cited slow Medicaid reimbursements to yendors and the state's downgraded bond rating.
• expanding gambling in Illinois. The Associated Press reported top Republican lawmakers have been considering a deal that would put land-based casinos in Chicago, Rosemont and possibly East St. Louis. Danville lawmakers, meanwhile, were hoping to push for a change in state law so the East Dubuque Silver Eagle can move there. The law now holds that four of the state's 10 riverboats must be located in the Mississippi River, but the Silver Eagle is faltering in the face of competition from Iowa riverboats.

Edgar will ask lawmakers to restore Medicaid funds for hospice care — a move conservatives fear will spur others to ask for restoration of Medicaid funding in other areas.

At press time, the House had failed to overturn Edgar's amendatory veto of the "Chief Illiniwek bill," which would have required the University of Illinois to keep the chief as an "honored symbol." The governor contended the matter should be left to U of I officials and members of the board of trustees.

Speculation on state help toward financing a new stadium for the Chicago Bears has waned, as have assertions that House Republicans will push for tax caps in some downstate counties, including Winnebago, Boone, Madison and St. Clair. These items, like many others, could resurface in the spring session. But if Philip sticks to his desire to deal only with the budget next year — the technical limits of the second year of a legislative session — many lawmakers' wish lists will be pushed off even further.

Jennifer Halperin

November 1995/ Illinois Issues/9