Community Perspective
Oversight on gaming essential
Published Saturday, August 23, 2008
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Stumble It!Fair, clean and accountable standards for the games of chance that Alaskans play will be on the ballot in the August primary.
Ballot Measure 1 would establish clear and consistent rules for the games of chance that are already legal — and commonplace — in Alaska.
If you’ve ever bought a raffle ticket, entered a fishing derby or played bingo, you have played one of Alaska’s legal games.
They provide recreational activity, a social meeting place and raise $350 million a year, a percentage of which goes to support more than 1,200 charities and nonprofit organizations throughout the state.
But numerous problems plague Alaska gaming, including misuse of gaming funds and collusion in awarding prizes. Oversight and reporting of activities are spotty and so is the accounting of revenues from cruise ship gaming. The Charitable Gaming Division is backlogged more than two years in filing a report. Most importantly, there is a growing illegal gambling problem in the state.
Right now, Alaska lacks consistent rules and oversight to ensure the legal games are fair and clean. Enforcement of gaming laws is divided among a hodgepodge of agencies.
An understaffed Charitable Gaming Division of the Department of Revenue is responsible for monitoring gaming activities. But enforcement of gaming laws falls to local law enforcement agencies and the Department of Public Safety. If they find violations, it’s up to the Department of Law to prosecute.
Forming a gaming commission is a common sense solution to protect nonprofits and ensure they receive the funding they need. The only opposition for proposition 1 comes from a group that wants to completely eliminate charitable gaming. Nonprofits play a critical role in Alaska and need this funding in order to thrive.
Ballot Measure 1 would consolidate all gaming oversight into a single Alaska Gaming Commission to make enforcement more efficient and allow the other agencies to pursue their primary responsibilities.
Gaming in Alaska has a rich history, and it is part of our heritage that needs to be protected. Voting “yes” on Ballot Measure 1 will ensure Alaska gaming is responsible, clean and fair for everyone.
Darwin Biwer of Girdwood is chairman of Alaskans for Gaming Reform and has owned a downtown Anchorage bar, Darwin’s Theory, since 1981. He moved to Alaska in 1966 after receiving a fisheries and wildlife degree, and he worked for several years as a biologist. He was a charter member of the Anchorage Cabaret Hotel, Restaurant, and Retailers Association (CHARR). He has also served as president of Alaska CHARR, the statewide association, and is now vice chairman.
Community Discussion
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Voting against measure 1 is a vote against jobs and against industry. It is against generated revenue for the state and against keeping gambling dollars in the state.
Most importantly, a 'no' vote is against an individuals pursuit of happiness, a constitutional right.
Vote yes on 1.
Voting can be such a gamble.
"To quite an extent, gambling is a tax on ignorance. I find it socially revolting when the government preys on the ignorance of its citizenry. When the government makes it easy for people to take their Social Security checks and pull [slot machine] handles, it relieves taxes on those who don't fall for it. It's not government at its best."
-- Warren Buffett
Vote YES on 1
Have you ever been to Dawson City? Let's give tourists a reason to come to Fairbanks. Yes on 1.
Absolutely vote YES on 1. Thank you
Don't have anything against gambling, but I do have a lot against the fact the commission would probably be controlled by Anchorage. Do you think they would give Fairbanks any of the business, just a few card tables. They need to better explain the make up so such a commission before I would vote for it.
If prop 1 becomes law Darwin will stand to make a lot of money. He will only have to share it with the state and the owners of the video poker machines. Don't be fooled there is plenty of oversight in gaming. CHARR and it's many bar owners stand to scoop the funds from charitable gaming away from the charities. The bar business is in a slump due to the strict DUI laws. This is an attempt to take the profits away from the nonprofit organizations that make most or all of their money from gaming. It’s just a different approach to the last few times they tried to change gaming. But it will have the same effect.
IRRESPONSIBILITY AT ITS WORST.
Author Darwin writes the following:
"Forming a gaming commission is a common sense solution to protect nonprofits and ensure they receive the funding they need. The only opposition for proposition 1 comes from a group that wants to completely eliminate charitable gaming. Nonprofits play a critical role in Alaska and need this funding in order to thrive."
If this had been written by an ignoramus, it would be lamentable. Since that is not the case, but rather it is written by someone who absolutely knows what he is talking about, it is despicable. Proposition 1 would enshrine into law a set of foxes to guard a henhouse. It is most absolutely NOT a commonsense solution and it most definitely does NOT protect nonprofits. On the contrary, it opens the door for for-profit gambling sites to trample into non-existence the more-or-less benign gambling that presently occurs in Alaska under the guise of non-profits, as the lure of casinos pulls the chance-takers away from pull-tabs and such into the far more alluring sites.
And that wonderful line "Nonprofits play a critical role in Alaska and need this funding in order to thrive"? As irresponsible a set of lies, non-sequiturs and smarmy illogic as even a politician could cram into such a short sentence. No non-profit needs make use of gambling in order to raise funds, but as long as current law allows them that, then this nose-of-the-camel-under-the-tent is positively the way for them to shrivel, not thrive.
Lower-48 states, burdened by the ease of transit from one state to another, have turned to a beggar-their-neighboring populations in order to try to overcome the societal costs of their own gambling-addicted citizens through fleecing those neighbors. Anyone who thinks that one more penny of revenue is going to accrue to Alaska through someone visiting here because gambling is allowed is as dangerously self-deceiving as whoever thinks he is so clever as to be able to beat the house..
Vote NO on Proposition 1.
Gambling brings many negatives that no one seems to be mentioning here. I will definitely be voting NO on this veiled attempt to establish big-time gambling in AK. So will alot of other people.
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