New York senator criticizes state ‘addiction’ to gambling

Joel Stashenko

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- With state-sanctioned gambling a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week proposition in New York, the Legislature's most outspoken opponent of gambling is asking where the saturation point is for New Yorkers' wagering dollar.

Between the state Lottery, Off-Track Betting parlors, horse tracks, the multi-state Mega Millions lottery and video lottery terminal casinos, "a person can gamble any time, day or night, and not only is it perfectly legal, it's actually sponsored, supported and encouraged by the state," said state Sen. Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican.

"We're at saturation point now, but still some seek to increase access to gambling and to ruin more lives," Padavan said.

Gov. George Pataki is proposing to establish as many as eight new VLT betting halls, six in New York City, as a way of having the state comply with a court mandate that it improve school aid for poor districts. Pataki has proposed earmarking what he said will be about $2 billion a year that eight currently authorized VLT casinos and the eight new VLT parlors will produce for school aid.

Padavan said he is trying to get legislative leaders to reject a further expansion of VLT gambling. If the Legislature approves Pataki's call for eight new VLT casinos, Padavan projected that $39.4 billion would be wagered at the 16 new VLT gambling halls.

Though legislative leaders have been cool to the eight new VLT ventures, they have not proposed alternative ways of raising money to comply with the school aid ruling and meet other state obligations. They said all means of increasing revenue were on the table in their discussions over a new state budget except for further expansion of broad-based taxes such as the income and sales taxes. The Legislature did both last year over Pataki's objections.

"The governor knows that broad-based tax increases hurt New York's economy and our ability to create new jobs," Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn said. "The Lottery expansion will create new jobs and allow New Yorkers to see the dollars they already spend in states like Connecticut and New Jersey invested in their own state and their own children's education."

Padavan, a Republican like Pataki, countered that the further "immoral" expansion of state-sanctioned wagering will increase the social ills of compulsive gambling such as personal bankruptcies, the losses of jobs and family turmoil.

James Maney, executive director of the New York Council on Problem Gambling, said it is estimated that 750,000 New Yorkers have experienced serious to severe gambling problems over the course of their lives and that 250,000 are currently struggling with those problems.

"This isn't economic development and it isn't an acceptable funding source for anything," Padavan said. "What it is, is a life-shattering addiction for millions, and it's being fueled by a state that seems addicted to the promise of easy revenues."