[1]"Oklahomans want to build the state on sound moral principles and sound economics. People knew the issues and didn't falter." – State Rep. Forrest Claunch
"Don't roll the dice," Oklahomans said in February as they voted 2-1 against legalizing casinos.
Despite fears from state educators, votes on school funding millages were not affected by the heavy "no" tally against casinos. Most property tax millages, which provide most of the funding for public schools in Oklahoma, also passed by a 2-1 margin.
The final tally on casinos was 304,349 against and 139,024 for. The 443,373 votes represent about 22 percent of the state's registered voters.
In 1994, 697,000 Oklahomans voted against a state lottery.
[2]If this year's measure had passed, it would have allowed casinos in four locations: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Sallisaw (far eastern Oklahoma), and Love County (far southern Oklahoma).
The proposal said the casinos would be heavily regulated, and that the four casinos would be the only ones allowed the first five years.
Opponents, though, noted that under the Federal Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act, if Oklahoma approved casinos or a lottery it would be required to negotiate new compacts with Indian tribes concerning casinos. Under the new compacts, the state could no longer prohibit casinos on Indian land and, in fact, could do very little to regulate them at all.
The state would receive no revenue for casinos on Indian lands.
State Rep. Forrest Claunch, who led the fight against casinos and against a state lottery in 1994, said he was pleased with the results. "A 69-31 percent vote is a tremendous statement," said Claunch, leader of Oklahomans Against Casinos. "It is a statement Oklahoma made; this was not a massive media campaign. It was just conservative Christians standing up and saying, 'We don't want this.'
"Oklahomans want to build the state on sound moral principles and sound economics," he said. "People knew the issues and didn't falter."
Casino proponents had promised revenues from casinos would help education. That is the same argument used in Oklahoma to end prohibition in 1959 and to approve pari-mutuel betting in 1982. When liquor-by-the-drink was approved in 1984, drink revenues were to lower real-estate and business taxes. But in 1990 Oklahoma passed the biggest tax in state history for education.
State educators had not wanted the casino vote on the same ballot as the annual millage election. Days before the vote, they raised concerns that people voting against casinos would also turn down millages.
Claunch said that was a non-issue, noting, "The educators ought to stand up and say, 'We were wrong. We've got informed voters.'"
Including the campaign against the lottery, Claunch has been working against gambling in Oklahoma for forty-five months. In between, he also was elected to his first public office.
He said he hopes the issue is dead for a while. "I would certainly like a little time off," he said. "I'd not like to see another 'sin' issue for awhile."
The Edward DeBartolo Corp., which owns Remington Park racetrack in Oklahoma City, had spent more than $1 million on preliminary work for casinos before it backed out in May 1996.
Better Opportunities for Oklahoma Students and Taxpayers (BOOST), a Tulsa group pushing for casinos, reported spending $516,165.45 in the campaign, of which $515,502.95 came from DeBartolo. Most of that was paid to people circulating petitions.
By contrast, Oklahomans Against Casinos only spent around $130,000 in the thirty-two-month campaign.
"There is a very good chance that, for the amount of money spent, there has never been a campaign so effective in opposing an issue," Claunch said. "This was just a grassroots constituency that voted."
State Baptist leaders were among vocal casino opponents; the Baptist Messenger, for example, ran editorials and advertisements against the proposal.
Gov. Frank Keating, who turned 54 the day of the election, said the vote was "a wonderful birthday present."
"I'm thrilled," he said. "The people of Oklahoma are able to distinguish between what is good for Oklahoma and what is not.
"We put everything on the same ballot and saved the state some money. Now we can put all this behind us.
"This says to the nation that we are going to focus on the things that really matter: education and building our economy," he said.
"This vote is no surprise," he added. "Oklahomans are sensible and intelligent people."
Oklahoma already has pari-mutuel racetracks and bingo halls; "beyond that, we don't want to go," Keating said. "We need to focus on what to do right now to grow the Oklahoma economy."
Barrett Duke, who addresses gambling issues for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, observed, "The vote in Oklahoma against the expansion of legalized gambling reveals once again that the majority of the citizens of the United States do not want legalized gambling in their communities. This vote in Oklahoma reinforces a recent poll taken in Louisiana that revealed that only 16 percent of the people in that state believe that legalized gambling has had a positive impact on the state. Only a year ago 30 percent had said legalized gambling had a positive impact on the state.
"As Americans become more aware of the vicious, merciless destruction that gambling wreaks in people's lives, they are doing what they know is right," Duke said. "They are voting for the health of their communities and for the future of their own children.
"Soon we will begin to see grassroots efforts all over this country to end legalized gambling. When that happens, and only when that happens, we will finally see the beginning of the end of this madness which is destroying millions of lives," Duke said.
Dave Parker is assistant editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger.
Casino Gambling
James Dobson, Ph.D., president of Focus on the Family, serves as an appointed member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. Earlier this year, he released the following information concerning the impact of gambling upon Atlantic City.
Addiction
The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey received 26,000 calls from New Jersey residents in 1996. Nearly 70 percent of callers reported problems with casino gambling.
Those who treat compulsive gamblers estimate the percentage of casino employees who are compulsive gamblers is about double that of the general population.
Bankruptcy
According to national studies on bankruptcies, Atlantic City had by far the highest bankruptcy rate in New Jersey, and in 1996, the city's bankruptcy rate was 71 percent higher that the state average.
Businesses
According to a 1993 article in The Record of Hackensack, N.J., in the first ten years of casino gambling, 159 small businesses shut down, mostly within a short walk from casinos. In the two years prior to the report, the rate of business failures doubled, with sixty-seven stores closing down. As of 1993, the city had no supermarkets or movie theaters.
Crime
Studies show that Atlantic City went from fiftieth to first in the nation in per-capita crime three years after casinos arrived. The total number of crimes within a thirty-mile radius of the city increased by 107 percent in the nine years following the introduction of casinos to the city. More than half of the city's crimes in 1996 actually occurred in the casinos themselves.
Family Breakdown
Atlantic City had the third-highest rate of child abuse among New Jersey cities in 1993, while ranking much smaller in population size than its metropolitan neighbors to the north. Of all counties in New Jersey, Atlantic County had the highest rate of Juvenile arrests.
Population
The number of Atlantic City residents has declined by 10,000 since the arrival of casinos.
Suicides
Recent studies have found abnormally high suicide levels for visitors and residents in Atlantic City after casinos arrived.