It's not ignorance that blocks gambling

Disappointed that gambling isn't any closer to legalization in Hawai'i this year than last, Senate President Robert Bunda is hoping to get lawmakers to create a special committee to educate us on what we're missing.

"We have to be creative," he said, in identifying new sources of revenue to fuel government. He echoes the murmurs we hear during every legislative session of how casinos or lotteries might resurrect the good times here.

We suggest Bunda have a look at the 1999 report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, the product of nearly three years of investigation and research. We doubt that anything attempted locally could match it.

The federal commission had representatives on both sides of the issue, pro and con, and has supplied enough data to keep anyone interested busy for months.

What you won't find in it is proof that legalized gambling would accomplish anything but the diversion of dollars from visitors and residents that otherwise would be spent on other activities.

Indeed, the federal report makes several suggestions to slow gambling's two-decade-old expansion: elimination of college sport wagering, a ban on Internet gambling, a federal age limit of 21 and restrictions on some lottery advertising.

Hawai'i should pay more attention to the troubles experienced by other communities — Atlantic City and New Orleans are but two — that thought gambling would reinvigorate their economies.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that to adopt gambling, Hawai'i would forego what now is becoming an important marketing distinction — the Islands are one of the few tropical resort destinations remaining to families that prefer gamblingöfree vacations. It's a distinction that before long will be worth far more than the tawdry promises we hear from gambling interests.