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5 GLR 1 (2001)

handle is hein.journals/gmglwr5 and id is 1 raw text is: GAMING LAW REVIEW Volume 5, Number 1, 2001 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Gambling and the Law® Who Won the 2000 Election? I. NELSON ROSE W HILE THE MEDIA FOCUSED on the close race between Al Gore and George W. Bush for president, little attention was given to other contests in the November 2000 election. Legal gambling was directly and indirectly involved in some very close races, including those which also required recounts. The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling sends out a self-congratulatory (and fund-raising) newsletter to its followers after nearly every election. The Rev. Tom Grey, Ex- ecutive Director, portrayed the results of the Nov. 7, 2000 races across the United States as a victory for anti-gambling forces: Make no mistake about it, we see the results of this elec- tion as a body blow to legalized gambling. Grey, as a political agitator, can be forgiven a little literary license. But, with this election, the anti's seem to have crossed over into self- delusion. November 7th was a good day for us! By their votes at the polls Americans proved that they are waking up to the threat facing our country and have soundly rejected legalized gambling in Arkansas, Maine, West Virginia, New Mexico and Wisconsin. Not exactly. Arkansas certainly was an election defeat. But the proposal was so bizarre that it was not a fair test of the voters' feelings toward legal I. Nelson Rose, J.D. Harvard Law School 1979, is a Pro- fessor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California. He is recognized as a leading authority on gambling law and is a consultant to governments and industry. Professor Rose can be reached at his Web site: <http://www.GamblingAndTheLaw.com>. gambling. The state's voters rejected amending their constitution to include a hodge-podge of gambling-related provisions: to set up a state- run lottery, allow charity bingo, set limits on how lottery revenue could be spent, and es- tablish a casino monopoly. West Virginia's election was even stranger. It was not a statewide election. Only voters in rural Greenbrier County cast ballots. The de- feat sounds impressive: the casino plan was voted down 58 percent to 42 percent. But this victory balloon collapses when we look at the actual ballots: there were only 7,065 No votes and 5,109 Yes votes-a total turnout of 12,174. More than 12,174 patrons enter a large casino on an average day, and the West Vir- ginia plan was far from a referendum on large casinos. The voters of Greenbrier County turned down an idea for a casino that was the most unusual ever proposed in this country. The Greenbrier resort planned to put the casino in a converted bomb shelter, designed during the Cold War to be a top secret refuge for mem- bers of Congress in case of a nuclear war. The fallout shelter-cum-casino would be open only at night and limited to registered guests of the Greenbrier Hotel. Legally, the defeat in tiny Greenbrier County does not kill the idea. The law passed by the West Virginia legislature is still on the books and can be used by any and all historic resort © Copyright 2001 by I. Nelson Rose. All rights reserved worldwide. Gambling and the Law® is a registered trade- mark of Professor I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, California. 1

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