Poll: Churchgoers find gambling acceptable

Gary Thompson

Tuesday, June 29, 1999 | 1:53 a.m.

In a pre-emptive strike against religion-based political opponents, the gaming industry released a new poll today showing regular churchgoers overwhelmingly believe casino gambling is an acceptable form of entertainment.

The poll indicates just 5 percent of Americans who attended churches or synagogues weekly consider gambling a greater threat to society than smoking, drinking or using marijuana, while 74 percent conclude it's acceptable for them or others.

The poll also indicates there's fertile ground for casino-entertainment marketing programs, disclosing that only 29 percent of the public and 26 percent of weekly churchgoers participated in casino gambling in the past 12 months.

The gaming industry is likely to use the poll results as ammunition against its most fervid opponents -- religious conservatives who have seized upon certain recommendations by a federal study panel to propose punitive legislation governing the industry.

But Tom Grey, the always effervescent leader of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, said he finds plenty to like in the new poll, as well.

"Let's say we're sitting at a poker table," Grey said. "I'm holding a hand I like better and better.

"Steve Wynn called me a little while ago and said, 'You're climbing up a greasy pole, Tom,' and I didn't know what he was referring to exactly," Grey said today. "But this poll result was part of it."

The national telephone survey of 1,100 Americans was conducted by the Luntz Research Cos. and Peter D. Hart Research Associates. It was commissioned by the American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm.

Wynn, chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc., and Grey, a Methodist minister who can find a little bit of good in anything, have often had "candid and honest" conversations, Grey said.

Noting that the latest survey supports the findings of a recently released Gallup poll, which concluded more than 80 percent of Americans gamble, Grey added, "I've always said Americans love to gamble.

"I tell the pastors we've got a tough job and we've got to fight the predator. That's why you can't get up on a pulpit and preach against gambling.

"What's significant to me is that I think we've got these guys. To come out and do a press release like this just delights me. I'm going to use it to get my people stirred up by telling them, 'The AGA says you love these casino people.'

"I'm trying to get this into an argument of whether casino gambling belongs on Main Street or not."

The survey results indicate it does.

"For years we've known that between 80 percent and 90 percent of all Americans support casino gaming," AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf said.

"What is interesting in this survey is that the overwhelming majority of regular churchgoers not only share that attitude, but also are pretty much like the rest of Americans when it comes to their attitudes and actions about gaming."

The poll results were released just days after a report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which conducted a two-year, $5 million probe into the gaming industry.

The federal panel's report, Fahrenkopf said, concluded gaming "has emerged as an economic mainstay" and is part of "the mainstream culture" of the country. It also proposed bans on gambling for people younger than 21, sports wagering and Internet betting.

The new poll results show the extent of gaming's acceptance by most Americans, one of the pollsters said.

"Even the most religious Americans believe in the public's right to choose whether or not to gamble," Frank Luntz, president of Luntz Research, said. "Even the most religious Americans do on occasion enjoy a day trip to a casino."

The survey found that 29 percent of the public have gambled in a casino in the past year, while 26 percent of the weekly churchgoers have done so in the same time period.

Weekly churchgoers and the public also share nearly the same opinion about Las Vegas. The total survey sample had a 57 percent "positive" opinion and 15 percent "negative" opinion about this city, while churchgoers were 49 percent "positive" and 23 percent "negative."

In fact, Las Vegas ranked second only to Orlando, site of family oriented theme parks such as Disneyworld, among four top destination cities. Las Vegas scored higher than New York and Los Angeles in its "positive" rating, pollster Peter Hart said today.

Hart compared the latest survey with one done 20 years ago, when Las Vegas scored far higher in the "negative" image category.

"This survey shows that by more than 4-to-1 Las Vegas is now seen in a positive light," he said. The expansion of gambling nationwide and aggressive marketing campaigns by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority may have contributed to the improved image of Las Vegas.

"The significant element in this survey is that attitudes aren't much different between churchgoers and nonchurchgoers," Hart said. "If you go back 20 years, they were substantially different.

"This survey demonstrates that the old formula and shibboleths saying gambling was acceptable to only a segment of the population are no longer true," he said.

The survey indicated 80 percent of churchgoers either "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree" that Americans should be able to spend their personal funds the way they want.

Sixty-five percent of churchgoers either "totally believe" or "mostly believe" the government shouldn't tell Americans how to spend their own money and time.

Of those surveyed, 64 percent of churchgoers say they "totally" or "mostly believe" regulation of gaming should be decided by the states.

Among churchgoers, 19 percent rated smoking tobacco, 41 percent drinking alcohol and 30 percent using marijuana as "the greatest threat to society," compared with the 5 percent who named gambling as the chief evil.

"They've had studies on crime, bankruptcy and the economics of gambling and they're the best studies money can buy," Grey said. "Now I'm even more sure Steve Wynn ought to keep paying Frank Fahrenkopf money.

"If you're selling sliced bread and it's a good product, why worry? If it's entertainment, why not let people gamble at 18? We send them to fight wars and let them go to movies, so why not let 'em gamble?

"The gambling industry is great in talking about freedom of choice, but what is it about this product that makes it so dangerous for 18-year-olds that the federal commission wants to ban it for them?"

The survey polled 1,000 Americans, 44 percent of whom said they attended churches, synagogues or other places of worship at least once a week. It then added another 100 people, all of whom were regular churchgoers, to the total. The AGA said the poll's margin of error is 2.8 percent.

More details of the poll will be released at the World Gaming Congress in Las Vegas in September.