The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 12

12 A THE PALM BEACH POST WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1995 Casino critics call payoff plan a bribe Every Washington resident who votes is being promised a share of the profits from slot machines about $100 a year if the measure passes. signature drive raised question about the initiative process, which half of the states have, though such paid drives have become i reality in recent years as voters have become wary of signing peti; tions. "It's bad enough we have people buying their way onto the ballot," Sauvage said. "But now with this initiative, you've got the logical extension, which is to buy the voters off directly." The Washington proposal is the latest nuance in the expansion of Indian gambling nationwide, in industry made possible by passage of the Indian Gaming Act in 1988! -1 S3 06 18 1 I i v. J) ft craziness," said Ralph Munro, Washington's secretary of state, whose office certified the proposal for the Nov.

7 ballot. The initiative is being sponsored by three American Indian tribes interested in expanding into casino gambling and is being bankrolled, in part, by slot machine manufacturers like Ballys, who are lending the tribes money for the campaign. Under the initiative, the tribes would pay voters no matter which way they voted on the measure. Offering a financial reward merely for casting a vote may be illegal in this state, Munro said. But the measure as it now stands will go on the ballot, though it may face a legal challenge later.

To some people, the proposal recalls the days of big-city party machines, when voters were induced to turn out by offers of free liquor, meals or more. "The simple promise here is that if you vote for this initiative you will get paid off," said Chuck Sauvage, executive director of the state chapter of Common Cause, a Photo by CHARLES W. HOLMES Soldier Effi Shlomo, 19, buys a lottery ticket from Shaul Moshe in Jerusalem. 'If I had the money I would play in a he says. Foes fear casinos Alii -will prey on poor The New York Times SEATTLE In the evolution of democracy, a ballot proposal to allow unrestricted casino gambling in the state of Washington is unlikely to merit anything more than a footnote.

But the way that the initiative is trying to sell itself to voters may give it a place in election history. If Initiative 651 passes, the casino promoters have promised to pay every Washington resident who votes this fall an annual dividend of a share of 10 percent of the profits from slot machines an amount that could bring each voter $100 a year. In typical off-year elections in the state, about 1 million people vote. To critics, the proposal amounts to an outright bribe, although on a mass scale. But supporters, after polling people on the depth of voter cynicism and distrust of government, say they are merely cutting out the middleman the tax collector and offering to give a chunk of their revenue right back to the people.

"The whole idea is absolute ram mmwdi irlur- i l.i.i L.m..ilri 1 rn A public opinion poll commissioned recently by the tourism ministry found that 60 percent of Israelis support the establishment of casino gambling, while 37 percent oppose it. friiiiAirt.gr ii fiijiniiT group that monitors campaigns. "You go out and do your duty as a citizen, and you become a shareholder in casino gambling. This is unheard of." Supporters compare the situation to that of Alaska, where every resident receives an annual dividend check now about $900 from state oil royalties. The difference, Sauvage said, is that the Washington dividend is held out as a bonus for voting.

Though early polls show the measure failing, gambling proponents are counting on a simple argument and a bit of old-fashioned greed to make their case. "This is a way to cut out the middleman, to cement our financial relationship with the people of the state of Washington," said Herb Whitish, the chairman of the Shoalwater Bay tribe, who is a leader of the initiative. "I don't view this as any kind of bribe," Whitish said. "We're just trying to share a resource with the people of the state." The measure qualified for the ballot after supporters gathered more than 256,000 signatures in a campaign in which workers were paid up to $1 for every signature gathered. Critics said the paid- dDQfts mm may have been taken.

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A public opinion poll commissioned recently by the tourism ministry found that 60 percent of Israelis support the -establishment of casino gambling, while 37 percent oppose it. "If I had the money I would go to play in a casino," said Effi Shlomo, 19, of Jerusalem, an Israeli soldier picking his favorite six numbers at a lottery booth this week. Hundreds of blue-and-yel-low kiosks throughout Israel sell lottery tickets for the equivalent of $4.60 in a widely popular game expected to gross more than $560 million this year. Profits from the lottery, established in 1951, pay for schools, community centers, youth and elderly care and other social services. Shlomo has played the lottery weekly since he was 14 and traveled to Turkey to gamble in casinos.

"I respect the opinion of religious Israelis. But if people have the money and want to play they should be able to," he said. Poor people who can least afford to play the lottery would turn to hard-core gambling if casinos came to Israel, said Shaul Moshe, a lottery ticket seller. About 100 customers a day buy their tickets at Moshe's booth in a Jerusalem residential neighborhood. Many of them use their credit cards, piling up debt in the hopes of striking it rich, he said.

"It's very bad. The problem is poor people would start gambling more," he said. "These people don't have the money to go to Turkey. But if it's so close, they'd be too tempted." While Israeli Police Minister Moshe Shahal opposes the GntElFttSBEiy Off casino proposal, a police assessment delivered to the Knesset in January said casinos could be adequately regulated with sufficient laws, an increase in the size of the police force and the ability of police to conduct background checks of casino owners and veto those with a shady past. City leaders in Eilat, a coastal city of 37,000, say they would want a municipal referendum before casinos were allowed to open.

Without casinos, the city's beaches and coral reefs keep the economy humming with a tourism industry that provides Eilat a 100 percent employment rate. Eilat has 6,500 hotel rooms, a number projected to jump to 12,000 in the next five years. Sheldon Adelson, president of the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, has lobbied Israeli officials to legalize gambling and is reportedly interested in establishing a casino in Eilat. But religious opponents fear casinos would not be limited to Eilat, in Israel's far south, but also be allowed at resorts on the Dead Sea coast and in Tel Aviv, creeping closer to Israel's holy sites. "The Zionist dream was to make this society one based on the fundamental vision of hard work, that profits come from living off the labor of your hands," said Bandel.

"Not everything that comes with progress and modernity should be automatically accepted." in the study secret, the study was able to identify many of them through zip code information in the records. In the series, Vladeck said his agency did not know how many doctors nationwide were paid more than $1 million and asked: "Why would it be important for us to know?" Ina statement releasing the letter, Bliley said: "Just in case Administrator Vladeck still hasn't figured out why such records are important, let me remind him. This is taxpayers' money we're talking about." The Cox series focused on the systematic flaws in the Medicare program that provide incentives for doctors to provide more services to make more rrney. It's the Take off original prices 72 doctors made 81 million ciearraffuce-priced! hi An additional 50 will be taken ofFat the register on our entire stock of already reduced pink-ticketed clothing. MEDICARE From 1A not comment on it.

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