If you are planning a trip to Las Vegas after November for some high stakes gambling, you may not need to leave Colorado. The Colorado Gaming Association has submitted a 2008 ballot initiative that would pave the way to raising existing bet limits by 475%, allow for 24-hour gambling operations, and add Vegas style craps and roulette to the existing gaming options. Essentially, they want to turn Colorado’s limited gaming towns into a western themed Atlantic City.
When Colorado citizens voted for limited gaming in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek in 1990, we relied on the proponents’ express campaign promise that gambling in Colorado would be so limited – with low $5 stakes, restricted hours, and limited games- that the harms and abuses inherent in higher stake gaming would not be an issue in Colorado.
Since the limited gaming initiative was passed, seven ballot measures to expand gaming in Colorado have been resoundingly rejected by Colorado voters. These ballot issues have attempted to expand gaming into Western Colorado, Eastern Colorado, Manitou Springs, lower downtown Denver, Trinidad, and into racetracks throughout the state. Such attempts to expand gaming across the entire state have been voted down by a collective average margin of 76%. Colorado citizens have made it abundantly clear that this state does not want to expand gaming beyond what was approved in 1990, but the Colorado Gaming Association is going to try to blow this door wide open in 2008.
Over the next six months, Colorado voters will have to endure yet another slick multi-million dollar expansion of gaming campaign. The Colorado Gaming Association, made up of casino owners, will pour enormous sums of money into this initiative campaign; in fact they have already hired an elite army of lawyers, lobbyists, pollsters, consultants, and campaign advisors to pass the initiative in November. The casino operators are not requesting a reasonable increase in the bet limit to account for inflation since 1990, they are seeking a dramatic and permanent shift away from limited stakes gaming in Colorado.
While limited stakes gaming has provided a boost in state revenues for worthwhile causes, such as historic preservation, this does not justify a sharp turn towards the darker world of high-stakes gambling. As we all know, “serious gamblers” don’t bother with Colorado’s limited-stakes gaming towns—they want high stakes, around-the-clock action with a full array of Vegas-style gambling options. This was exactly the point in passing limited stakes gaming in 1990 – keep the addiction, bankruptcy, crime and corruption out of our backyard. Now Colorado voters will have to reaffirm this stance in 2008.
If Colorado voters were to adopt this initiative and open Colorado’s doors to high-stakes, 24/7, full blown Las Vegas style gambling, it would create an immediate financial incentive for major gaming corporations and Indian Tribes to expand operations to other Colorado locations, and especially into densely populated metropolitan areas. Of course, proponents of this measure will argue that it is not their intention to expand gaming in Colorado beyond the 2008 initiative measure, but Colorado voters heard that same line in 1990 when gaming was approved on the express condition that it was limited stakes, limited hours, and limited games. Colorado is a great state because we protect that which makes it great- this initiative isn’t worth the gamble.
This article appeared in the Rocky Mountain News, May 10, 2008
Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008
by Jon Anderson, Contributing Editor
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