Opinion: Sleaze, as in slots

A Times Editorial

Sleaze, as in slots

There are already more than enough ways and places to gamble in Florida. The latest tragic evidence unfolded this week in State Attorney Bernie McCabe's report on the suicide of his Hillsborough County counterpart, Harry Lee Coe. When Coe put a pistol to his head last July, he had a "negative net worth" -- that is, he was bankrupt -- to the extent of $150,000. In 15 months, he had written $510,000 in checks to local dog tracks, which were still holding $47,000 he couldn't cover. Coe's financial ruin, McCabe concluded, "was largely a result of excess pari-mutuel wagering by Mr. Coe."

In related news, some Florida horse and dog tracks are circulating petitions for an initiative that would let pari-mutuel plants operate slot machines wherever local voters approve.

Their paid solicitors bait voters with promises of more revenue for education and senior citizen programs, but they don't talk about the other consequences: more compulsive gamblers, more bankruptcies, more suicides.

The pitch is a sly twist on a proposition Floridians overwhelmingly rejected in 1994. Then, the issue was unlimited casino gambling for the tracks. Now, it's supposedly limited to slot machines. In fact, current electronic technology makes this a distinction without a difference. They make the roulette wheel electronic instead of mechanical, and voila! -- it's a slot. Debase the Constitution with this initiative, and every dog or horse track in Florida is potentially a full scale, 24-hour-a-day, hypnotically alluring electronic casino.

The promoters call themselves "Floridians for a Level Playing Field," on the premise that they should be allowed to compete with the Indian casinos and day-cruise boats that are arguably beyond the reach of state law. The remedy for that contagion is not to have more of it, but to demand strict enforcement of federal law.

The "level playing field" is ironic. The field is never level where gamblers are concerned, because the gambling house always wins. Always. The odds are programmed into the machines.

By any name they choose or whatever pretext they propose, these sleaze merchants are peddling something Florida does not need and cannot afford. Whatever taxes their customers paid would not nearly make up society's costs as measured by the disastrous impact on families, the added burden to law enforcement, and reduced profits to businesses that do not prey on human weakness for their profits.

Florida voters have rejected casino gambling on three occasions, and no doubt would do so again. The best defense, however, is for good citizens to keep it off the ballot by refusing to sign those petitions. Remember Harry Lee Coe.