Referenda Spending by the Gambling Industry

Gambling interests frequently push for gambling expansion issues to be decided via referenda, under the guise of "letting the people vote." This may sound like good, old-fashioned democracy at work; it is not. Such referenda allow gambling promoters to unleash a torrent of media spending that corrupts the democratic process by precluding fair debate. Citizens are inundated with the gambling industry's pie-in-the-sky promises of jobs, tourism and economic development, which drown out the truth about legalized gambling's devastating social and economic costs. Following are but a few examples of the huge disparity in spending between gambling proponents and opponents evidenced in 1996 gambling referenda campaigns.

In Ohio, gambling proponents spent $8.5 million on a failed campaign to legalize eight dockside casinos at various locations around the state. Opponents spent $1.1 million. (Office of the Secretary of State Ohio, Campaign Finance Department.)

Louisiana gambling interests outspent opponents by a margin of nearly 200 to 1 in statewide local-option elections to decide the fate of riverboat casinos, the New Orleans land-based casino and video poker machines. Gambling expenditures totaled $10.5 million, while opponents spent $53,000. (Brad Cooper, "Gambling Interests Spent $10 Million on '96 Elections," Shreveport Times, Jan.21, 1997, p. 1B.)

Pro-casino groups in Michigan spent more than $10 million in narrowly winning a referendum to bring casinos to Detroit. (Melinda Wilson, "Why Wasn't Whole State Opened for Casinos, Many Ask," Detroit News, June 19, 1997, p. A6.) Opponents spent but a small fraction of that amount.

Washington state gambling proponents outspent opponents $1.7 million to $12,000 in a failed attempt to legalize slot machines at tribal casinos. (Rob Carson, "Voters Again Say No to Slot Machines," (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune, Nov. 6, 1996, p. B3.)

In 1994, casino promoters spent a staggering $16.5 million in a failed effort to bring dozens of casinos to Florida. Opponents spent $1.7 million. (Michael Griffin, "Court Clears Way, for Casino Vote in '96," Orlando Sentinel Tribune, June 9, 1995, p. C1.)

Missouri gambling interests spent nearly $15 million on two 1994 referenda -- one failed, one successful -- to allow full-scale casino gambling on riverboats. Opponents spent $395,000. (Missouri Ethics Commission, "1994 Missouri Annual Campaign Finance Report.")

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