Gaming panel has direction

Monday, Nov. 3, 1997 | 9:50 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The National Gambling Impact Study Commission heads into its first meeting on the road in Atlantic City in January with a new sense of direction.

Friday's meeting, in which the nine-member panel hired an executive director, agreed on rules of operation and defined an ambitious research agenda, ended with optimism on the part of pro- and anti-gambling forces.

"The preseason is over," said Wayne Mehl, a Capitol Hill lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association. "Whatever happens now starts to count."

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, described the meeting as "sort of a crossroads for the commission."

"I think they're off to a good start now," he said.

Chairwoman Kay Cole James, who is opposed to legalized gambling, added: "Don't miss what happened here today. For us to be in a position where we have agreed on a research agenda is phenomenal."

Included in the research the commission approved is the first comprehensive national survey of gambling behavior in more than two decades.

The survey, according to a report put together by the commission, will attempt to determine the extent to which gambling is entrenched in society. It will obtain casino industry records to show betting patterns and the kinds of people who gamble frequently.

The commission also agreed to collect data on a "large sample of communities" that have introduced casino-style gambling within the past decade to determine its correlation to crime, child abuse, suicide rates, divorce rates, welfare and domestic violence.

Bankruptcy filings, unemployment rates and government expenditures on criminal justice and social services also will be examined, the report said.

Communities that don't have casinos, but other forms of gambling, such as lotteries and racetrack betting, also will be studied extensively.

And the panel plans to conduct a major review of problem and pathological gambling.

Other subjects expected to be taken up include the economic impact of gambling on Indian reservations, the rise of gambling on the Internet, and the promotion of gambling in communities across America.

"I think it's a huge task," said Nancy Mohr Kennedy, the panel's newly hired executive director. "It's going to take a lot of awfully hard work by the members of the commission, their staff and the public to come up with a viable recommendation in a short time."

In recognition of the massive research that needs to be done, the commission, which must complete its work by the summer of 1999, is seeking another $1 million from Congress to supplement the $4 million previously granted.

"There's a sense that we're moving down the road," said Commissioner Bill Bible, chairman of Nevada's Gaming Control Board. "We're starting to do the work that the American people have asked that we do."

Added Commissioner John Wilhlem, secretary-treasurer of the international Culinary Union: "We're putting the nuts and bolts in place, which should have been done three months ago."

The commission has been plagued by infighting over its divergent opinions about gambling since its first meeting here in June.

Wilhelm credited James for changing her leadership style to get the panel untracked.

"I assume the chair realized that if we didn't get a more consensus building approach here that the commission she's chairing would end up looking foolish," he said.

James said it "just took time" for the commissioners to get to know and trust each other.

"They're an excellent group of people," she said. "We're going to put out an excellent product."

Other than the meeting in January, the panel has yet to decide which cities to visit.

Las Vegas, however, is high on the list and likely will be the site of the commission's final road trip in November 1998.