Posted on: Wednesday, January 9, 2002

Editorial
Lawmakers shouldn't waste time on gambling

Gov. Ben Cayetano has thrown a new wrinkle into this year's debate on gambling. He says he wants gambling legalized only if a specific proposal is approved by the voters in the form of a constitutional amendment.

Of course, the Legislature has the power to authorize gambling simply by passing a law by a simple majority. Cayetano's implicit threat is that he might veto such a bill. Some lawmakers might be unwilling to risk voting on such a controversial measure in an election year, especially one likely to be rendered moot in the end by a veto.

Cayetano's tactic shines a ray of hope for the anti-gambling forces, who worry that this might be the year that lawmakers buckled under the full-court press mounted by gambling interests.

But by most counts, gambling so far has the slimmest of majorities at best, and is highly unlikely to corral the two-thirds vote required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

It's not clear, however, that Cayetano's intention here is to defeat gambling. Cayetano himself has become suddenly ambivalent on the gambling question. He had said he might be open to a single casino or perhaps shipboard gambling. But yesterday, in discussing his call for a constitutional amendment rather than a general gambling law, Cayetano mentioned how easy it has been in other states to expand gambling — along with its attendant negative side effects — once its proponents have their foot in the door.

The constitutional amendment question in fact is something of a red herring. In a representative democracy, it's the duty of the Legislature to decide on gambling. Thus to toss the issue to the voters is, in a sense, to punt.

But there it is. Cayetano's preference for a constitutional amendment is now part of the furniture in the upcoming legislative session. Lawmakers can't ignore it.

With that in mind, practical considerations should prevail. If this issue doesn't have a chance to muster a super-majority, then lawmakers should quickly put it to a vote and waste no more time on it.

There are, after all, many crucial questions — how, for instance, do they propose to finance state government? — that require their attention.