Gambling tore Michelle Schlichter's family apart and sent her (now) ex-husband to prison for crimes he committed to support his addiction to betting.
Maggie Carlton, a newly elected Nevada state senator, believes gambling saved her family by providing her with a lucrative job waitressing in a casino and lots of great benefits.Such is the contrasting testimony offered at the sixth and final site meeting of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, where both women testified Tuesday. Congress created the federal commission in 1996 and charged it with the task of assessing the social and economic impact of legalized gambling - a $600 billion a year industry in the United States.
Only two states - Utah and Hawaii - don't allow gambling in one form or another. Thirty-eight states operate some form of lottery.
The commission will issue a report in June 1999 and offer recommendations to Congress. First, however, it must wade through conflicting information offered by both those who support and those who oppose gambling.
The testimony is as passionate as it is contradictory.
Schlichter's husband, Art, a former professional football player, used every resource she hadn't managed to shelter from his addiction to betting.
"My youngest daughter doesn't understand what happened. But she does understand the prison system," Schlichter said. "My 4-year-old daughter knows the routine to take your shoes off, enter the metal detector and stand straight with your arms out to be frisked. There are many, many victims."
"Because I'm a union waitress, I don't have to work two jobs," said Carlton. "And I can be the kind of parent I want to be to my girls. I'm active in the PTA, I'm a Girl Scout leader and I teach Sunday School."
For every point made during the two-day site meeting, there was a counterpoint.
Nevada Gov. Bob Miller touted the economic impact of gambling in Nevada: jobs with good wages, an unemployment rate below the national average, "personal income that's among the highest," low taxes, a 54 percent increase in business and a 5 percent annual increase in employment.
At the same time, Ron Reno of Focus on the Family, based in Colorado, sent an editorial to most newspapers accusing the governor of only telling part of the story.
"Will the casino cheerleaders tell the federal gambling panel that Nevada ranks No. 1 among the 50 states in suicide, No. 3 in bankruptcies, No. 4 in alcohol-related deaths, and at the top - surprise! - in gambling addiction? Highly unlikely. That might undercut the idea that `gaming' is a harmless form of recreation akin to a trip to the amusement park or baseball game," Reno wrote.
Democratic Nevada state Sen. Joseph Neal described the gambling industry as "parasitic."
"While I am not anti-gambling, I just feel it should pay its fair share."
"People like to live here, and people like to visit here," said Sen. Richard H. Bryan, D-Nevada, who admitted that he liked it when Nevada had the gambling monopoly and the bulk of gambling money came into his state's economy.
Only during the hourlong public hearing at the end of the first day of the two-day meeting did the majority of those testifying agree. Of the first 20 people who signed up to testify and were thus assured a voice (the rest were put on a waiting list, depending on time available), only four didn't directly speak for a casino or belong to one of the unions that work in casinos.
The commission is nearly as controversial as the topic it is studying. When the commission was first formed, members with opposing viewpoints couldn't even agree on what would be studied or how, which originally put the commission well behind schedule. It has since caught up.
People who oppose gambling have charged that the gambling industry is too well represented on the panel. And those who support gambling have said that the panel is weighted too heavily against the industry.
The General Accounting Office is also in the process of reviewing the commission, looking at its expenses and other issues. When that probe will be completed is un-known.
Commission chairwoman Kay C. James, the lone female on the panel, seems unfazed by the controversies.
"Spirited debate and differences of opinion are expected and encouraged," she said, adding that the mix of opinions has been very deliberate. "We have invited advocates for and against legalized gambling in order to get a full range of opinions," she said.
Among the issues the commission will consider in writing its report is whether a federal tax should be levied on gambling.
During the meeting, panelists listened to testimony on sports gambling, neighborhood gambling and casinos focused on local clienteles, employment issues and a discussion of "some of the problems" that accompany gambling.
Anti-gambling factions painted a picture of gambling addiction, crime and dysfunction. Those supporting gambling downplayed that, saying every community has problems.
The commission will begin writing its report in the spring. Meanwhile, commission Executive Director Timothy Kelly said, researchers will go through the testimony and verify facts.