Gambling On Iowa

If this is the dream I don't want to wake up. People curious 1991 people whose day I was ready to celebrate. That day I was sure in a new era of becoming the first state to allow riverboat gambling on the great Mississippi. Riverboat gambling also marks another milestone with the addition of slot machines crap tables roulette wheels and blackjack dealers. Iowa now allows more forms of organized gambling than any state in the country. More than Florida more than New Jersey more than Nevada. Lotteries race track simulcast in Bingo riverboats all of it endorsed as means of increasing tourism and state revenues. Except for bingo it has taken Iowa only six years to get to this point. But some ask just how far have we really gone. Has gambling been an economic jackpot or a losing bet. Watch gambling on Iowa next on Iowa Public Television. Major funding for this program was provided by friends of Iowa Public Television.

The thing that I'm enjoying the most about this I think is having a chance to come back on the river after an absence of so many years. I don't this trend the rest of my years on the river you watch. And die at the wheel when my mission was ended. I was fascination with gambling riverboats is nothing new or boats crews in Mississippi in the eighteen hundreds with a steady run a professional albeit illegal gamblers. Was that close. Not was was it's not historic interest that I was new riverboats hope to capture with its hoop skirt women top padded men and multiple versions of Mark Twain. This Mark Twain without his cigar powdered wig and make up is riverboat historian a clever hable Smith the steamboat owners generally. Had a signpost of no gambling or games of chance strictly prohibited or words to that effect.

And then they just generally look the other way until the gambler. Took far more or too much money from one passenger and made himself obvious that way or until he got caught cheating. Then they would be indignant and ceremoniously having put off the boat. In 1819 an estimated 200 packing boats recline the waters of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers 20 years later the number jumped to nine hundred carrying everything from freight and mail to passengers. On the packet boat became something really quite a luxe areas. Lawrence Johnson is a local historian and owner of the davenport riverboat gallery. So as the gambler fell into the net check on this on this particular thing he supplied the passengers with a relief from the tedium and the boredom of day after day after day going down the river looking at nothing but trees on the shoreline.

Men like George have all established a reputation as suave sophisticated and one of the rivers most famous and profitable gamblers on one occasion after taking a considerable bit of money from several players. Yvonne discovered that they were planning to kill him to escape. He jumped overboard. But the water was shallower than he thought and his feet became stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river with water up to his armpits and he was fired at a couple of times but they missed and his fire the shooting and the shouting. Brought the attention of some people on shore who threw him a rope and pulled him to safety. By the time of the Civil War railroads began to infringe on the riverboat trade and gatherers started taking their business inland. The monopoly was broken and as a consequence of that the boat trade you know really just fell off to almost nothing. By the 1900s explosion boats and not packets were more often seen on the river and

galleries were strictly excluded. These boats were geared to families and in most ways gambling had become dead on the Mississippi. Dead except for a ferry boat named the WJ Quinlan. It started carrying passengers from Davenport to Rock Island in 1904. The charge was five cents a head and it pushed off shore passengers were allowed to bet on bingo or play slot machines. It was probably the first boat with organized gambling run by the boat owners on the Mississippi River. But not while she was tied up to the dock he didn't want to violate state laws on the Iowa side of the river or the Illinois side. So once she touched the dock the gambling stopped the band stopped. And once the lines were cast off and you were free from the dock everything started again till you got to the other side. In 1945 the Quinlan was dry dock for safety reasons. Then in 1967 the boat was burned either by accident or arson. No one was

quite sure. And the last vestiges of gambling on the Mississippi went up in smoke. Meanwhile on shore illegal gambling and drinking halls we're just getting established in one thousand twenty eight George Mills was also just starting out as a cub reporter in the Marshalltown times Republican for 63 years he's written about the events that shaped Iowa infrequently the gambling activities within the state. The state was when I've as I first know it was basically a church state and they were such things as happened now were completely unbelievable. For instance a picture of the governor of via one form of a slot machine on a gambling boat that was just would be unheard of. When I first came dialogue over six years ago. No games like slot machines and payout pinball machines were illegal. Many legitimate

upstanding organizations were well known for their gambling activities. They all had slot machines. Country clubs had them. The good people had them and they were an important part of their support money. Even when reporters started investigating gambling clubs the owners seemed more concerned about payouts than illegalities. George Mills recalls one assignment to a western Iowa gambling club. I'm number I played a slot machine. And I hit the jackpot but it didn't come. So I wrote that and they were mad about me writing the stories so much as they were about the fact that I wrote that I hit the jackpot and it didn't come that I didn't get the money. A law enforcement officials regularly held raids and gambling halls know it was probably more vigilant than Attorney General Robert Larson during the late 1940s and early 50s. He cracked down on gambling in Iowa despite some political opposition.

In fact the governor of Iowa in 1950 called a conference in his office to chide liason. Larson said the way I read the law it applies to everybody. The law was very definite and the result was that someone had lowered the boom on one rate in Des Moines in one thousand forty nine state agents rated 53 nightspots in season destroyed some 76 gambling machines. They made sure there was no tip off. I had a time by taking the police along but not telling them what was happening until they got into the car and and the writers all hit all these spots all over town at the same time seized all those machines dragged them to the courthouse where they were condemned and broken up. It wasn't for another 20 years and gambling raids made such news. It was now the late 1960s and Attorney General Richard Turner was warning that playing bingo for prizes

was illegal. The events came to a head in 1071 when Turner ordered a raid on a church picnic in the small town of North when a Vista games of bingo and paddle wheel were confiscated and a local minister arrested. And I'll cry and sued and one year later I will voted to make bingo legal to do sell the state repealed a state constitutional prohibition against gambling first established in 1857. But instead of just making a provision for bingo lawmakers removed an entire sentence of the Iowa Constitution and bans lotteries and in effect open up the Constitution to any of a number of gambling opportunities. A newspaper quoted one opposing lawmaker as saying. I tell you friends this bingo game soon gets out of hand. Other forms of gambling will run rampant in this state. If we take this provision out of the Constitution. One thousand years later those words seem prophetic. Live it more it is time for the official Iowa lottery drawing. My pace is fine and nice to be with you.

There. The order of business is a daily deal cards remember you can win for twice a week at exactly six twenty eight in the evening the balls start to roll and within the next 90 seconds some island just might become a millionaire. This is the Iowa lottery. Six years in the making as the commercials say spend a dollar and your dream to come true. But it's. Time. I thought it was a dream come true. In July it was Myles Cunningham's turn right here as this check received by a former DOJ employee from humble roots and I want to know why. Cunningham just won one point one million dollars in the Iowa lotto. The crush of public attention on new winners has lessened over the years when a million dollars six years ago would have brought out an army of cameras and reporters. Nevertheless the state lottery seems to have invaded all parts of the state. The lottery tickets being sold in nearly 4000 retail outlets. On this particular

afternoon a lottery fever is hot. Top prize for Lotto America. Twenty three million dollars but with a lot of people happy right here. If you want. To pay my bills first. Why do you have a list of charities and organizations that I like. And then we happen to yourself. Oh yeah definitely. I mean grandmother is going to be rich Great Perhaps. But the real winner week after week is state government in its first six years the lottery has given the Iowa legislature more than two hundred and forty million dollars in lottery proceeds. The lottery is so big. Only 19 Iowa businesses have a larger annual sales. We're just going through pre-production work. The man behind the numbers is Ed Stanek proud of me that I was lottery commissioner. To keep profits up. Lottery officials say like any business they must advertise this time to die. Today it's a campaign for the latest scratch off ticket.

We don't like to make promises that we can't stand by. So truth in advertising is important to us. By the same token when you're trying to sell you have to put your best foot forward. Selling fun that's a phrase you hear a lot of at lottery headquarters and that is how lottery tickets are sold not as a means of gambling. When a ticket costs that dollar I can't see any people coming in and plopping down and create huge sums of money for marketing their house to buy lottery tickets it just isn't done and not an IOI people are far too sensible. Gary made you an accounting professor I was State University looks at it differently. I don't see that the government should be involved in gambling solely on actively promoting gambling. His opposition to the lottery is not based on morality or ethics but you can nomics about the best you could say is that gambling provides some entertainment. But even that is very. Fleeting with a loser rate in

case of a lottery. The entertainment is the five or six seconds that expire between the purchase of the ticket and the rubbing off of the ticket to see that once again. Thank you. Maybe you also doesn't like lottery commercials since they don't air the odds of winning or losing. We wouldn't permit more US to use such advertising to sell their beer or their cigarettes would be appalled at that kind of message. But since it's government we apparently see all right. It's truly regressive. Lower income people have a lower percent of the school. Yeah you're the person making 15000 years 20 a week on the lottery that's what could be a significant part of their savings. You know I could get by with a mil in the hand.

It'll be tight. So it's very regressive it has to lower income people but much harder. It's not true. I hear that same statement made every time a new lottery starts up or when an editorial writer decides they have a written editorial on a lottery for a while. STANEK points to research that indicates middle income people buy most of all I was lottery tickets. In my. Mind. I have never liked it. Now the guy on a couple of the automatic pick of the machines any consumer good that has a fixed price costs more as a percent of the income for anybody who has a lower income than somebody else. I spent about four hours last night with the computer. And we picked a bad hundred chances that we just don't have enough time to do and so we just did a quick. Six they were going try for next time. What you buy today. About 20. Less money. Yeah. I think it's usually every week but that night and I played Saturday and Wednesday so. It's a. Party we have to sell for

$40 a year. Ever think about the money you put $40 where you put that away somewhere. I don't really think about it because when I travel and buy some stuff. TVs that cost $150 apiece are a higher fraction of the income for a person making $10000 a year than for a person making twenty thousand. So if it's a function of the arithmetic not necessarily a social consequence. But unlike a lot or a state government is not in the business of advertising television sets the state legislature limits how much the lottery can allocate to advertising that's a really good one. Last year it still spent over 5 million dollars to convince each I one to buy a ticket. To keep interest alive the lottery games keep changing. Starting with a scratch ticket in August of one thousand eighty five the lottery has turned a game show's Daily Deal games and the addition

of revenues from Lotto America a multi-state lottery run out of offices in West Wednesday and Saturday that's even if. You do win the jackpot. A strategy apparently has worked at least for the first four years. Revenues have more than doubled between one thousand nine hundred sixty one thousand ninety nine to over one hundred and seventy three million dollars. Lottery games like a lot of American officials also like to point to the amount of money the lottery pumps back into the state. Most of lottery proceeds were originally earmarked for economic development. You're alone. When you play a lot of America by a whim. Three years ago Kammen industries of Des Moines was given a $50000 low interest loan to expand its livestock feed additive business. The money was provided through lottery proceeds in exchange for a guarantee from the company that it would maintain thirty seven jobs and create an additional twenty seven I was probably the deciding factor whether we were whether we would expand here or whether

we would. But in the summer of 1990 the bulk of the money earmarked for economic development was shifted to environmental programs. That allocation was short lived though as I was budget problems surfaced originally lottery money was to have been used for special programs and was promoted as the icing on the cake not the budgetary bread and butter but in an attempt to find new source of revenue. Lawmakers and the governor began shifting Lottery Program expenditures this year keeping the money in the general fund. If I saw what's happened with the lottery money compared to what the intention was I probably voted against the lottery bill instead of in the lead sponsor on it. Senator George Kinley says he always thought lottery money should have stayed with the general fund but I never was much for earmarking money because you start the programs and you can't get them to stop. And that's what's happening to us. The money in my opinion should have went directly to the general fund. That was the intention of the bill. I have always opposed Senator Bill Dielman a long time opponent of gambling says by

taking money out of those special programs lawmakers have broken an important promise. And that's again one of the fallacies that we predicted would happen. One of the things that we said would happen when this got going and prophecies on that are coming true. Meanwhile lottery revenues have begun to fall in the last two years gross revenues have fallen 9 percent and for the first time ever the amount of money that goes back to the state dropped from 50 million dollars to forty four million dollars. Lottery officials blame the goal for the economy and competition from other gambling interests inside and out of the state. Play major league cash. You're going to get to the best game all summer. But some analysts say the nation may just be getting tired of the lottery. 31 states plus the District of Columbia currently play the games with even more states now considering it. Well lies ahead of course is anyone's bet what is for sure is that

six twenty eight Any Wednesday or Saturday night. It starts all over again and another Iowan just might become the next millionaire. Live in Amman it's time for the official I will lottery drawing my face is my name. Nice to be with you. Let's get started. Storm clouds have been brewing over the prairie Meadows horse track not clouds that bring rain. The ones that threaten downpours of public disfavor. Financed with 40 million dollars in bonds and without voter approval. Polk County supervisors agreed to repay those bonds if income from the track fell short. So far income has not only fallen short but the county has had to lend the track money just to meet operating expenses. By the end of this his third year Paul county estimates that it will have shelled out over 10 million dollars to keep the Altoona track open. If it weren't for state tax credits generated by the tracks betting revenues the numbers would be

even higher. I think it's a lot of tax money gone down the drain. I don't really believe in gambling so I don't think our. Money should be spent for that. But I think that they could find a source. Of income to help to track. That. It could be if it cracks in the maybe they need to put some other things out there with it or use it for things other than just horse racing also. So I need to see our tax money going to something that will. Not make it. But then again I think it's good if it could make it it would be good. If. The person put in charge of cutting cost is Carol Baumgarten numbers numbers numbers that's how we do it for years. Within her first year Baumgarten made dramatic changes. Over 200 employees were let go. Advertising dollars were slashed and by the beginning of the third season harness racing had been eliminated. In the end operating costs were reduced from over six million dollars during his first season to

under 4 million dollars in 1900. Apparently the only ones to directly profit from Prairie Meadows have been the bondholders. They finance construction of the track with the purchase of tax exempt bonds minimum the nomination $5000 by the end of this year. The bondholders will have received over 11 million dollars in return interest and principal. Weather is just one of the season's big problems. Spring rains have drastically cut attendance if it hits right when we're going to race or right when you're getting off work. Then it does hurt us. And who's to say. I see that branch had declared a bunch of. Counties you know our disaster areas. Who's to say what entertainment facilities should be declared same way from having this kind of wetness. Sambal cousine is one of the latest changes that for a metals live dog and horse races from across the country including races from the Council Bluffs greyhound track are televised on monitors and will tune up the betting handle is then split between prairie

meadows and the originating racetrack this summer prairie Meadows was given permission to simulcast year round even if there are no horses on the track. It's become apparent to me after two years of managing this track it cannot be a horseracing facility and a horseracing facility alone it has to be more statements like that have worried members of the horse industry horsemen of course who criticised me for not knowing their industry. But that's exactly what this industry needs is it needs people from the outside walking in and taking a fresh look at it. The 90s are going to be times of change for this industry and it's not going to come from the people who've been in it live and breathe it for 40 years it's going to come from people who are walking in and they see where the problems are and they're not afraid to attack sacred cows and make changes. Despite the losses of prairie Meadows likes to know the economic spinoffs created by the track. A greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce study claim that prairie metals generated thirty four million dollars in

spending in 1909 as much as 17 million dollars coming from the horse breeding industry. Chuck Schott says the stables he manages near Perry wouldn't be here if it weren't for the track. But he says he's still suspicious of efforts to make prairie Meadows something other than just a horse racing facility. Crane Meadows has to succeed for any of this industry to succeed but we don't want them to succeed at our expense. It's better now than having no track but we have to have a certain level of racing integrity. You can only get so low and then it's not good buyable racing the public's interested in. I think something has to be done I just don't think you can close the place up. Senator George Kinley a leading sponsor of the original parimutuel Bill thinks it's time for the state to step in. He says he'll propose adding casino games to the prairie Meadows track during the upcoming legislative session.

I think that the temporary casino games that which would not be run in my opinion by the way when the track was viable the races were running would be just another added cash flow for them so they may retire the debt. Otherwise I think that facility would be empty and the danger of closing. But time may be running out for prairie Meadows. A lawsuit questioning the legality of the county's ability to guarantee bonds for the construction of the track is still unresolved. And in July the Polk County Board of Supervisors came one step closer to denying prairie Meadows additional credit to meet operating expenses without new and positive information combined with a realistic business plan. I cannot continue to support the failing operations of prairie Meadows supervisor John Morrow is considered the swing vote on additional aid. He says he'll vote against prairie Meadows unless a new study on the tracks viability expected this fall convinces him otherwise. These people don't want to see that Carol Baumgarten says Polk County just needs to be more patient. She says it will take another

five to six years before the trackin stand on its own. But as for herself the days of the track may be numbered. There's only so long that you can be affective and cut as much as I've cut. There comes a time when you have to pass a torch because certain projects need to be done and they need someone else to carry the torch for and I'm well aware of that. Ladies and gentlemen seven point nine million dollars worth of bonds are now going up in smoke. Your to be right. But while prairie metals has struggled to keep up. I was dog tracks have repeatedly climbed into the winner's circle last year returning nearly 11 and a half million dollars to state and local governments. Everything we do from now on is pure profit. The Dubuque Greyhound Park has been so profitable at this summer it was able to pay off a 20 year bond issue 14 years ahead of schedule. What we did was to be cautious and conservative. We knew that we'd never have the whole game to ourselves forever and we kind of put that money aside and as we could we

retire debt and indeed retired all the debt as we opened for our seventh year. Unlike prairie Meadows dog track organizers went to the people of Dubuque for their support before taking a dog track request to the Iowa Racing Commission. And I could stand before the racing commission and say we're the only city in Iowa that not only wants to build it is ready to build it but has passed a bond referendum and we're ready to pay for it already. We went down there with 87 percent approval on our bond issue. Dubuque Mayor James Brady says public and corporate support was the key to success in the early 1980s one out of every four residents was out of a job. Today unemployment stands around 6 percent. A riverboat has been lured to town and the number of tourist has jumped three fold. The whole city has just taken off but this was kind of a catalyst for us dog track and then this where proof that we could do things together and work as groups and I think that's what we needed to see our positive results. But the publicity of Dubuque success may now be hurting it. Seen how profitable Greyhound tracks could be. Wisconsin started building their own.

Today it has five dog tracks and the resulting competition has cut abuse attendance by 30 percent from previous years. Plus running callous of loss is also feeling the pinch of competition. The track officials say increase gaming activities within Iowa can also affect wins and losses. Those who legislate us in the business I think sometimes. On the verge of legislating someone out of business they really need to pull in the reins whether it's in the form of the off or land based casinos the riverboats more lottery are you know whatever they are. They really need to pull back a little bit because you know even the tracks you know we're babies we're you know we're still in our infant stage we're only six years old. The dog tracks have on occasion also been skeptical of simulcast ing at Prairie Meadows in many ways casting is like adding a new racetrack I was gambling picture. To permit this year's expansionism a casting lawmakers sought the approval of I was three dog tracks and by the time Council Bluffs and signed off on the agreement the simulcast and

Bill had acquired provision that will cut as much as seven hundred thousand dollars in taxes Bluff's run and really owes the state. Now begins in 1993. To be perfectly frank with you in order to get expanded simulcast and that's one of the provisions that was given the Council Bluffs for us to get expanded simulcast in at Prairie Meadows up that's part of politics and I understand where people could criticize that but in fact what we have given the Buke and Waterloo the same tax breaks and so I think it's our bluffs run insist there was no hidden agenda. No because some a Kassam was profitable with us encouragement and the tax credit basically to the thrust of that was equity. We are taxed on like anyone else. And yet their dog track so we were looking toward for equity gambling opponent Bill Dielman contends that no matter what the reason such a redirection of funds is not right wouldn't be great to have a business where you could have state money coming to

you to pay for future expected losses. They're not losing money at the moment. They're not making as much as they had but they're not losing money. And that to be just an improper use of state dollars. Meanwhile the Dubuque Greyhound Park has learned to survive against other competition namely riverboat gambling. At first the track was opposed to riverboat gambling bill but when it saw that passage was inevitable it did what I felt was a smart thing. It jumped on board. I guess it was the old If you can't beat em join em kind of a philosophy. No one is quite sure who came up with the idea when a gambling casino want to remember boat. But whatever it was the idea has been played fast and hard in their first five months of operation. I was fired. River boats have paddle beyond some of the most optimistic projections. It's.

Just so. Since opening day well over 1 million passengers have gambled away more than 30 million dollars and I was riverboats. The advent of casino style riverboat on the Mississippi has given hope to I was depressed river towns. I don't know how they could. Make it. Out. It's going to. Be. But it's. Gonna be a. Good. One. This is. Real. Beneficial thing for. The community. Reason. For. Help with all of them are plagued by unemployment and faltering economies. River town saw the boats as symbols of better times to become much more of an entertainment center. We're going to have more people performing here and it's a lot more fun. Than the straight. I'm. Really not a gambler but I think it's true. That I don't like to live.

And live forever. Those limits no more than $5 bets in losses that can exceed $200 per excursion have been lawmakers way of control in Iowa's gambling habit. I think to market it exclusively for gambling that it's going to be a one or two or three. Shot it's not explicit it's common to have a bomb on the Mississippi River. The pressure to raise those limits may be mounting. Illinois will introduce its first river boats to the Mississippi later this year. Unlike Iowa's boats there will be no gambling limits and some worry that Iowa's river boats and they not be able to compete. The Connelly Group which owns the president riverboat casino says it has not asked lawmakers to raise I was gambling limits. But it also says it hasn't ruled out that possibility and that's not to say we won't. It's not to say that we will see what impact either of events have but at this point we're simply going to present and provide the best experience on the river that we can and. Hope that people like enjoy that.

Like other riverboat towns in Davenport wanted to make sure that whichever river boat it allowed to dock at its port would be committed to staying in the president's case. The do or die date is March 1st 1993. At that time if the president has not average two thousand two hundred fifty passengers per day Davenport will allow the president to paddle away into the sunset to be replaced with a much smaller boat. I said only yes I fully believe the president is in its home in Davenport. I firmly believe that. So far the president has averaged more than thirty five hundred passengers per day far more than is needed to meet its agreement with the city. Whether the onset of Illinois River boats will affect daily attendance is hard to gauge but Ed Holden thinks times could become more difficult for Iowa's riverboats. A resident of Davenport and 17 year veteran of the Iowa State House he was voted out of office in 1908 after voting against the riverboat gambling bill. He thinks

Davenport is pinning too many of its hopes on the president. There is nothing to keep a boat from Mosaic moving you know you don't have that say on a foundation of the local operator and board has made no fixed commitment of any kind. Everything is portable. In fact the Connelly group has made a number of purchases in Davenport including an office building an older hotel. John Connelly owner of the president has also signed a long term lease agreement with the Davenports Capitol Theater where he hopes to attract big name country music stars. But on the levee development is a far cry from some of the original promises. Plans for a riverfront shopping area in a new hotel have been delayed or changed. And dear Holden thinks city officials have given up too much for the right to have a riverboat in their backyard. They have back down time after time. But I remember that in the beginning that was what their big push was going to be. No gambling operator is going to come in

here and. Take money out of this community without making some fixed commitment that will be left here. In Bettendorf home of the diamond lady as much of the same 57 million dollar riverfront project including a hotel amusement park and ice skating rink have been put on hold. Back in Davenport September 1st was to be the Connelly group's deadline for beginning construction on a permanent land base prominent where passengers could buy tickets and gain access to the president. But the Conley group now says it would prefer to build a floating guest service facility next to his boat. The city had originally wanted some forms of land based development fearing that without it a boat owner would have no long term commitment to any particular city. Congress representatives insist they have no intention of leaving. City officials have approved the change. But not all cities have had as much trouble with riverfront developments. In Dubuque a multimillion dollar ice Harbor project has taken off.

All we're doing is returning to that early pride this this was our bread and butter in the early days. The same gambling boats plied this river a hundred years ago and they brought the lumber away from us and the fur trades in the lead mines shipped everything out here by the river and now we're back again realizing the river is recreation and beauty for all of us too. At first the Dubuque Greyhound Park Belle River boats would compete directly with its customers but also realize that because the city's location someone would eventually want to place a boat at its doorstep the answer apply for its own riverboat license. In this case the Dubuque is the Nobel. What we really are trying to do is to take the person that might have come here just for an afternoon of racing or maybe would come to another community just for an afternoon of river boating and to make them fully aware of the fact that there are the two things that you can do together. Actually begun before the establishment of riverboat gambling the riverboats gave the city the boost it needed to finish the ice Harbor project and now houses retail shops a museum and a welcome center. Unlike the Greyhound Park is quickly being paid off.

Unlike other riverboat towns which charge a 50 cent city admission fee to Dubuque a see no bell charges an extra $5 50 cents of that still goes to the city of 450 of it goes to the Dubuque Racing Association ensuring the association is prepaying some 4 million dollars. It contributed to the ice Harbor. So. Overall Iowa Racing and Gaming officials say riverboat gambling has been a financial success. Davenport officials originally predicted that riverboat gambling would turn over sixty nine million dollars in additional expenditures when the Quad City area. The critics claim gambling also has its costs. The Division of Criminal Investigation employed 20 state agents just to police I was riverboats. That is nearly one third of the state's entire DCI force. Meanwhile more states are taking a serious look at putting gambling boats on their lakes and rivers being first in the water has given Iowa an advantage. But some gambling analysts say a

river boats may soon go the way of lotteries with a sudden explosion of activity. I was riverboat owner say most of I was other forms of gambling have a limited effect on their business. But a new threat is just over the horizon. One in which the state may have limited control Indian own casinos. Yes this may be the history of my was Native Americans. This could be the future. This is jackpot junction. Minnesota's largest Indian own casino I don't know all right we're going to take it was famous for all of us but I guess when I help you with one guy. We're going to continue to grow to keep the customers happy. We went in today. Besides funding some community projects. The casino is able to pay each member of the lower Sioux Indian tribe a monthly check of $2000. Even

those who don't work at the casino will makes that possible is a 1988 federal law known as the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. The Act allows tribes to offer any forms of gambling legal in their states. When Iowa began offering casino games aboard its riverboat since April Iowa Indians were essentially given the go ahead no fewer than four tribes are currently considering building gambling casinos in Iowa. One of the most elaborate casino proposals comes from the Santee Sioux. They live in a remote part of northeastern Nebraska and want to build a high stakes 30000 square foot gambling casino in Council Bluffs. Originally we came out of Iowa where we have home ties and then the south western part of Minnesota. That's where I was a homeless. So when people ask why we want Iowa. Well you know we're only going home. Many of the Santee Sioux people are descendants of a tribe that once lived near men K-Doe

Minnesota paintings in the local tribal center represent an uprising in 1863 where thirty eight Indians were hanged. The rest were delivered by boat to this reservation in Nebraska. When employment opportunities are scarce here and at least one of every two people is without work. Tribal leaders hold money from a casino. What help with the reservations medical clinic. Currently one nurse and one physician's assistant are the only full time medical staff. Taking your right eye doctor comes in one day a week the dentist even less. The local school is also in disrepair and supporters of the casino say gambling could provide money to fix it. We've kind of become dependant I hate to say that but that's a fact a lot of us will never leave here. So the government continues to give us something to try to survive out here. I would like to see us change its mind you know where we can we can feed ourselves and we buy the things we need and

create the jobs that we need to run their proposed casino the Santee Sioux when looking for a manager. They look west and found Harvey South Lake Tahoe. It's Harvey's Resort Hotel and Casino. Harvey's is Lake Tahoe as old as operating casino. In addition to running the gambling operation the Nevada company would build its own 450 room hotel and convention center. Developers want to put their casino and hotel here at the doorstep of Council Bluffs Greyhound Park. We're going to have the Cadillac of the casinos in this area. We have excellent location on the interstate. We've got an airport extremely close. None of the other proposed casinos have them swayed by projections of new jobs and millions of dollars in local and state taxes city and county leaders put their full support behind the proposed casino. Well not everyone likes the idea.

Opposition has always been at this land based casinos goes up basically. Right outside our window and we give ourselves maybe 18 months at the most to survive. Regardless of what casinos say there's the marketing strategy. Go visit us Ron go visit. Henry don't resume for self-contained units. They have to keep the people captured. But the last one is not the only one concerned about the effects of a high stakes casino. And we're living in a state that has decided that under the name of quote economic development unquote that almost anything can go and that if someone will say this will bring in more dollars then it must be good for us. The most you know segments of the religious community have signed petitions in opposition to the proposed casino.

The people who are talking about casino gambling coming to Council Bluffs are promising that the community is going to be bettered. That was the same promise we heard about the lottery being established in Iowa. We've got the lottery now we've had it for a number of years. We're still in a financial crisis. It hasn't solved our problems. And neither will the casino solve the problems in Council Bluffs But the biggest obstacle in the Santee souse plans may be governor Terry Branstad. And I have said basically I will not support unions going out and buying property just for the purpose of establishing a gambling operation. Since the Santee suit I'm not currently own the Iowa land in which they want to build their casino Branstad says he has the right to deny their request. Well because I don't want to have the kind of problems that come with high stakes gambling which is an invitation to criminal activity and organized crime. Mark Ramsey claims a legislation that allows Indian gaming does not prohibit applications from tribes outside the state.

As for the issue of increased crime he says that would simply be bad for Harvey's bottom line loan sharking is bad for business prostitution is bad for business. I'd rather have you spending your 20 bucks or your $50 at my casinos at my restaurants in my hotel. So I went on a local process to. Try members also think it's unfair they can't participate. You know I was gambling profits the government you know originally wanted us here to become self-supporting anyway. And you know to say no it would be against everything that they're they want us to do start with you know so. Back in Iowa high stakes Bingo has been the game of choice for most Walky Indians near Tamia. As many as fifteen hundred players can fit in the misc Walky bingo hall winnings there as high as 1 million dollars. Ringer was started as a means for the tribe to start developing into other areas. So in a sense it's the seed money to branch off into other forms of talent

and also to benefit the tribe in terms of its welfare for its members. But some tribal members question where the profits are going. And one thousand eighty nine financial report indicates that in the Hall's first six months of operation in income from bingo concessions and other games total over two and a half million dollars. The way they say we're going to give you money and. Build homes and have a better life for. It's an individual family here. They're just not coming through. I'm not saying that some of these pocket anything that you know they should be. By now or should have tried should have seen some kind of money coming in the house. The bingo officials insist most of the money generated by the games still goes toward retiring the debt acquired with the construction of the bingo hall. Any major project that you see it's not going to be paid off over. So essentially the revenues being generated now. We are

offsetting that on this structure here as well as keeping up with the day to day expenses. The first project to reap some of the benefits of bingo is this convenience store now under construction. Besides selling gasoline and food it will market Native American artwork and crafts. But the most Kwok easel may now be ready to take the next step into video poker and slot machines. In fact the state of Iowa has already signed off on a gambling agreement with the tribe and are only waiting for a signature from the most walkies. But some tribal council members are skeptical of parts of the compact. The particular provisions that would allow state authorities to enter tribal land to make arrest and seizures an issue that goes right to the heart of Native American sovereignty. Frank Black Cloud says he supports the construction of a casino but not the way the state has written the compact. And to me. The way this state is drawn up the complex just it's our way or the highway. And that's the way it is.

The state's compact also requires most walkies abide by the same last limit set up on Iowa's riverboats agreements that we will work out with and will have the same limits of $5 a bet limit in the controls on the extent of the losses that we have on the river about what the law may not agree. In South Dakota and Connecticut courts have ruled that while tribes could only offer games allowed elsewhere in the state they did not have to abide by the same betting limits. Meanwhile in Nebraska the Santee Sue are waiting to hear from the Interior Department on their request to put the side of the proposed casino into trust status. If Indian casinos do come to Iowa it would obviously mean more opportunities to gamble. For many people gambling is nothing more than entertainment but for some it becomes much more. It becomes an obsession. I started when I was just maybe five or six years old. Family car games going to the racetrack with relatives to

betting $1000 $2000 on sporting events flying out to Las Vegas. I would get sick if I didn't go to the racetrack. It was action constant continual action for most people gambling is nothing more than a night out. But these are not those people. Each year hundreds possibly thousands of Iowans show the symptoms of becoming compulsive gamblers. They are people who play not so much for the fun of it but because they cannot stop. There is something to gamble on I was there anything you know I would. Place a bet on where a company is going to park when they pulled up. Remember house. I would bet on whether or not it would take 20 minutes or a half hour. My kids to mow the yard being go lottery tickets racetracks they all held a different attraction says Paula. Eventually $70000 in debt and with no way out she became what she calls a runaway

housewife leaving behind a husband and small child compulsive gambling is not a poverty disease. But to get you there. As part of a compromise agreement on the 1985 lottery bill. Lawmakers here Mark one half of 1 percent of lottery proceeds for gambling treatment programs. Programs like New Horizons and Davenport. I've had many gamblers described needs when they were in action when they were betting again. They never felt more alive than ever. Well power. I felt like I was something when I was gambling it was you know I was important whether I wanted a monster you know if I was important person. You keep saying to yourself oh I can bet this person I'm going to do this person. And that's not really that's not really true. When you start losing you figure that out real quick that you're not better than anyone else and that's part of what I thought. At his lowest point Steve was losing $200 a night at racetracks. And like many

problem gamblers he was able to hide his addiction from friends and family even to the point of theft. I had to find other ways to supplement my gambling habit and I had to look where I could get it from I couldn't be from taking my family. So what I ended up stealing from the company that I was. When his company found out is Steve was released from what was a promising managerial position when most employers unwilling to hire him and his money lost to gambling. Steve lost his house and his family through divorce. This summer he found his first full time job since being fired four years ago. A minimum wage position with a local service station. He says it was not just the losing that turned him into a compulsive gambler but the winning problem was is the for the first week at the racetrack I. Won a hundred dollars and no. Place just so excited that I had to keep going

because I thought I could keep Vick and mall owners. That didn't continue. Howard Berger started gambling at age 16 by the time he was in college he was a bookmaker at 27 a professional gambler in Las Vegas after spending time in jail for defrauding a casino. He quit gambling. He now counsels other compulsive gamblers in Council Bluffs. Most see him when they are 20 to $90000 in debt. The power is gone. The grandiosity is gone and the remorse sets in and they don't know how to handle those feelings so they just want not to. And in order to not feel so a side becomes a viable option. In fact compulsive gamblers are 20 times more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population. Berger says what is equally disturbing is the number of teenagers he's beginning to see with gambling problems. One thousand ninety one survey of Council Bluffs junior high and high school students showed 85

percent had gambled once in her life 15 percent from a similar study 10 years ago. Five percent of the students also showed signs of compulsive gambling behavior. Others said they had become bookmakers stolen or sold drugs to pay for their gambling habit. Males most of the teenage gamblers burgers these are high school athletes. They will bet on things like whether or not they make Allstate next season whether or not their team gets in the playoffs. And these kids will start taking bets from their friends six months prior to the event. And. Most of the bets are two and three dollars but they'll have several hundred of them. And that ends up to a lot of money and an awful lot of pressure on this kid to perform. While it's not legal for minors to gamble the social acceptance of gambling can be pervasive riverboats now allow 18 year olds to gamble while video game rooms babysit younger visitors. Because of the money it provides. Berger says teenagers often see nothing wrong with gambling.

And we can build new schools new roads new highways. Why do all the stuff with this money there for kids growing up in this society. You don't have to social and religious and moral stigmas against gambling that your parents had. I think clearly the next generation coming up kids that are adolescents today are going to grow up gambling a lot more. And if a higher percentage gamble that a higher percentage will become addicted to it. That's just the distance that just happens. My way is really the leading gamblers assistance program in the country. But the money to treat those addicts is quickly disappearing Number one Governor Branstad designated the end of August as gambling assistance Awareness Week. It was meant to bring attention to the programs that treat compulsive gamblers. But several months earlier the governor and lawmakers had dramatically slash the program's budget. Twenty two black revelers a compulsive gambler will gamble away their possessions everything this year would have been a bumper year for the gambling assistance bureau.

On top of the money received in the lottery the program was to receive another 3 percent of adjusted gross revenues from riverboat gambling. That would have translated into millions of dollars. Call 1 800 bets off. Sir are you out. Again Instead the state cut funding in half to three hundred eighty seven thousand dollars. About 13 times less than the Iowa lottery spent on advertising last year. There was a deal that was struck five years ago and the deal still should be upheld. People will continue to gamble. More people will be enticed to gamble. And I think to be socially responsible to the citizens that there should be treatment services if there is additional need. And it should be done. But just to be able to give administrators a whole bunch of money to spend on administrative costs and instead of services doesn't make a lot of sense. At the crux of the budget cuts is a state auditors report that criticized the gammon assistance bureau for spending over half its money on administrative cost in 1990 but the

Bureau claims those numbers are misleading since most costs are spent on clinic counselors at 12 different treatment centers. Last year the gambler's Assistance Program treated three hundred and sixty two gamblers and family members and with current cutbacks bureau officials say the program will run out of money early next year and all remaining treatment centers may close. What you like doing well Paula has good gambling and remarried. You know the average Joe hasn't gambled in months and and Steve is beginning to get back on his feet. His employer just gave him a promotion and he says he's considering someday becoming a gambling counsellor. The things pertaining with gambling if you really don't care what happens is you're focused so much on the gambling itself that you really don't care if you lose a house you don't care if you lose a job you don't care if you lose a family. The big thing a thing that bothers me is seeing my daughter's swing set back there. The house the home that Steve lost is now owned by someone else.

It's really nice down here. We had. A sled that I had tow and tie my dog up to. And put my daughter on the sled and a. Pole or. I mean just memories that. Don't happen again. But Steve says one of the hardest things about his gambling problem was the effect it had on his family particularly his three year old daughter. She is now seven and visits every other weekend. I have to wait till she gets to the right age where I believe I can tell her exactly why daddy did what he did. Why she doesn't live with me. I guess it's a. No doubt gambling has rich earned millions of dollars to state and local governments the promises of economic development have not always been kept. And limitations on gambling have one by one been knocked down by three metals now wants to simulcast its horse races at the Waterloo Greyhound Park

and Governor Branstad who says he does not support the legalization of sports betting says he does oppose a national ban insisting the issue is best left up to the states. But what of the human cost. Someone argue that those people who become addicted to gambling would do so even if it were illegal. Of course with more gaming options in any other state the odds for addiction may increase substantially. One thousand years ago a lawmaker warned that by legalizing being go Iowa it was opening the door to unprecedented levels of gambling within the state. Who would have bet he would be right. He.

And Major funding for this program was provided by friends of my work public television. If.