Gaming report to be rewritten

Mark D. Preston

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A new report detailing gambling's social and economic impacts today was criticized as incomplete by a federal commission investigating gaming.

The report, which cost $1.2 million and was authorized by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, came under fire from both pro- and anti-gambling commissioners for reaching conclusions based upon insufficient data. It was authored by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, Gemini Research and The Lewin Group.

The commissioners directed the report's authors to rewrite portions of it and resubmit it for their review. Commission Chairwoman Kay C. James said they need "more information and more research" from the authors.

The report's main conclusion is that the "current national economic impacts of problem and pathological gambling are relatively small both in terms of population prevalence and cost per prevalent case."

This conclusion drew praise from the American Gaming Association -- the lobbying arm for commercial casino interests in Washington -- even though the organization criticized the authors for their "transparent attempt ... to put the worst possible spin on it."

The report's conclusion angered anti-gaming commissioner James C. Dobson who said the cost of divorce and child abuse caused by gambling is far greater than $5 billion a year, as the study concludes.

While Dobson said the report was "an honest effort to tease out the truth" he also said it incorrectly estimated the number of youths engaged in gambling. Dobson threatened to write a personal report detailing his conclusions unless he was able to express his objections in the commission's report to Congress. His idea was endorsed by Commissioner Leo J. McCarthy.

Commissioner J. Terrence Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand Inc., said the report was "an honest attempt on a limited budget" to provide data on the subject. But Lanni chastised the authors for leaving out valuable information that he said will help people reach their own conclusions.

Specifically, in a preliminary report released last month, the authors included data gathered from casino patrons based on their gambling habits in the past year. In the final report, only lifetime statistics were released.

"It's information they gathered ... people are going to be interpreting that report and I think the more information you give them the better able they are going to come to some conclusion," Lanni said. "I don't think that is disingenuous to include it, I think it is disingenuous to exclude it."

Lanni predicted this report will not be the final analysis on gaming's societal impact. Instead, he said, it will be one more source of statistics.

"I don't think it is going to be the definitive document for all time," Lanni said. "I think there will be future surveys and many will be more expansive."

Commissioner Richard Leone expressed concern people will try to pick apart the report and it will be deemed worthless even though it has valuable information.

"The problem is ... we are going to put so much weight on it, I think it is going to sink," he said.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, AGA's president and CEO, said he has been concerned about the report's bias for some time.

"We feel that the report was in effect modified from the preliminary report a month ago to hype the numbers higher," he said. "I think NORC improperly airbrushed out the prior year numbers that would have shown the prevalence and cost (of problem gambling) were lower."

Fahrenkopf said the authors are under tremendous pressure from anti-gaming forces on the commission to make the numbers higher.

"I think they are under tremendous pressure by anti-gaming forces to try and kick the numbers up," he said. "I don't think they got high enough and that is why Dr. Dobson is so unhappy."

The commission is meeting today and tomorrow as it works towards completing its state of gaming report that will be presented to Congress and the White House in June.