LJWorld.com

Wisconsin, Connecticut and Oregon expanded casino and slot gambling - Oregon specifically did so to help pay for public education. Those states' experiences might shed light on the reality of expanded gambling in Kansas.

Expanded gambling has generally been a benefit for Oregon, said economist Bob Whelan of Eco Northwest, a Portland economic consulting firm. The state receives about $500 million annually from gaming revenues.

Whelan said Eco Northwest conducted a study with the University of Oregon to determine who gambled and what the social result of expansion of gaming had been on the state's residents. The study found that about a third of Oregon's residents actively gamble.

Whelan said the third of the population that gambles was already gambling - online, in office pools, in the stock market, at bingo halls and during trips to Las Vegas - before gaming was expanded in Oregon.

Whelan and his research team discovered that problem gamblers usually don't frequent casinos because of the formality of having to drive, park and get situated at a crowded place.

Ryan Parsons is a research associate with the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which is relied on by a variety of constituencies including the Wisconsin Legislature to determine the social and economic effects of state and private-sector policy.

Parsons recently completed an analysis of the effects of expanded gaming in Wisconsin since 1998.

In comparison to Oregon, Wisconsin's take of gaming revenues is small at $70 million annually. Most of that goes toward property tax reduction. All casino gambling in Wisconsin, like Oregon, is run by American Indian tribes.

Parsons said Wisconsin lawmakers found that gambling's ability to produce revenue was paltry compared with the increase in expenses the state has faced.

Parsons pointed to Connecticut, a smaller state with fewer proportional expenses compared with Wisconsin. Connecticut has profitable casinos, which contribute nearly 4 percent of the state's total revenue. Nonetheless, Parsons said even that percentage of revenue was no match for the expenses that pile up in state government.

Parsons said gaming revenues were not a panacea for revenue deficiencies.

Whelan said Oregon's experience was different from Wisconsin's. With the ability to know what revenues from gambling would be, the state should be able to match expenditures to keep them in line with what gaming generated, he said.

Parsons said Wisconsin residents - especially its legislators, civic groups and church members - were divided on the value and propriety of gaming, so there was a never-ending antagonism between pro- and anti-gaming constituencies in Wisconsin that has slowed the growth of gaming there.

Whereas solid citizen and legislative backing of gaming could have seen its expansion over the years, the divisions within the state have made gambling a relatively unimportant source of state revenue, he said.