Article March 25, 1985 Issue

SECOND THOUGHT

Looking again at news and commentary

Dan Rather Reporting

From CBS Radio Network "Dan Rather Reporting," January 18, 1984

"Walk along the streets of New York past the Off-Track Betting parlors and the candy stores selling lottery tickets and the newspaper stands pushing Wingo and Stingo games, and you get the feeling that these days, gambling isn't just a pastime or a hobby. It's a mania, an obsession, some say a national disease.

"... A few years ago, I had a talk about legalized gambling with a wise old Englishman named Charles Benson. In England you can gamble on anything. But Benson said, 'Gambling, to a certain extent, is a social evil because like other so-called soft vices it's a weakness. And the weaker people are, the more likely they are to get in trouble.' There is another argument. When Mario Cuomo, the governor of New York, says gambling is inevitable and the state might as well get some of the profits and put them to good use, well, that's a legitimate argument. But it's the argument every state has used when various forms of gambling, from lotteries to Off-Track Betting, have been legalized. And too often, say some critics, what the states have wound up doing is not just profiting from an existing vice, but encouraging that vice by promoting the idea of gambling.... there's a big price to pay for new revenues in the states' coffers, and it may be the most profound reason that cities and states may find themselves thinking twice."

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