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The Morality Politics of Lotteries and Casinos: Comparing Gambling Legalization in Tennessee and Mississippi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2012

Michael Nelson
Michael Nelson*
Affiliation:
Rhodes College
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 62 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013

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References

Notes

1. Nine states allow only land-based or riverboat casinos, seven states allow only racetrack casinos, and six states allow both. American Gaming Association, State of the States 2012: The AGA Survey of Casino Entertainment, http://www.americangaming.org/files/aga/uploads/docs/sos/aga_sos_2012_web.pdf.

2. For an overview, see Nelson, Michael, “The Politics of Sovereignty and Public Policy toward Gambling, ” in Gambling: Mapping the American Moral Landscape, ed. Wolfe, Alan and Owens, Erik C. (Waco, Tex., 2009), 39–70Google Scholar, 399–401. Tribal casinos operate within the borders of twenty-eight states.

3. Mooney, Christopher Z., “The Public Clash of Private Values: The Politics of Morality Policy, ” in The Public Clash of Private Values: The Politics of Morality Policy, ed. Mooney, (New York, 2001), 3–18.Google Scholar

4. Tatalovich, Raymond and Daynes, Byron W., “Moral Conflicts and the Policy Process, ” in Moral Controversies in American Politics, 4th ed., ed. Tatalovich, and Daynes, (Armonk, N.Y., 2011), xxix–xli.Google Scholar

5. Heider-Markel, Donald P. and Meier, Kenneth J., “The Politics of Gay and Lesbian Rights: Expanding the Scope of Conflict, ” Journal of Politics 58 (May 1996): 332–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. For a defense of the case-study method, as well as for much more detailed treatments of these and five other cases, see Nelson, Michael and Mason, John Lyman, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation (Baton Rouge, 2007), chap. 1.Google Scholar

7. Of the eleven southern states, Mississippi ranks first in its percentage of Baptists and eighth in its percentage of Catholics. Tennessee ranks third in Baptists and tenth in Catholics. Both states also rank near the bottom of southern states in their percentage of non-Christians. Calculated from data in Woodard, J. David, The New Southern Politics (Boulder, 2006), 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A 2006 Pew survey found that white evangelical Protestants are the only population group of any kind to agree with the statement: “It is morally wrong to gamble.” In contrast, Catholics disagreed by a four-to-one margin. Pew Research Center, “Gambling: As the Take Rises, Do Does Public Concern,” 26 May 2006. Further, as David A. Skeel Jr. points out, “Evangelicals have been the principal opponents of the lotteries nearly every state has put in place in the past three decades.” Skeel, “When Markets and Gambling Converge,” in Theology and the Liberal State, ed. Charles Cohen and Len Kaplan (Madison, 2006).

8. Calculated from data in Stanley, Harold W. and Niemi, Richard G., Vital Statistics on American Politics, 1997–1998 (Washington, D.C., 1999), 288–89Google Scholar. See also Lyons, William, Scheb II, John M., and Stair, Billy, Government and Politics in Tennessee (Knoxville, 2001), 32–34.Google Scholar

9. Amendments may also be proposed to the voters by specially called constitutional conventions.

10. Interview with Lamar Alexander, 1 March 2000. On the political appeal of charitable bingo, see Burnham, John C., Bad Habits: Drinking, Smoking, Gambling, Sexual Misbehavior, and Swearing in American History (New York, 1993), 161.Google Scholar

11. Secretary of State v. St. Augustine Church/St. Augustine School, 766 S. W. 2d. 499 (Tennessee 1989).

12. M. Lee Smith, “Capitol Commentary,” Syndicated Column, 21 February 1993. Provided to the author by M. Lee Smith.

13. David Waters, “Moral Ministry Starts Drive Against Lottery,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 2 July 1993.

14. Technically, this modification narrowed rather than broadened the scope of the amendment the General Assembly had voted to approve in 1991, and so it was not regarded as a new amendment. The narrowing effect was to assure that after the constitution’s lottery ban was lifted, casinos would be constitutionally prohibited everywhere but Memphis.

15. In 2003, Herenton revived his campaign for a constitutional amendment to authorize casino gambling in downtown Memphis. This time Cohen refused to help the mayor pursue what he thought was a politically hopeless cause.

16. The adoption and implementation of the Georgia lottery are chronicled in Nelson and Mason, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation, chap. 3.

17. See ibid., chap. 4, for a fuller discussion of the Alabama lottery defeat.

18. John Commins, “Lottery Backers Betting on Support for Referendum Issue,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, 4 February 2001.

19. Richard Locker, “In New Senate Membership, Lottery Stands Its Best Chance,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 14 January 2001.

20. Rebecca Ferrar, “Tennessee Leaps Lottery Hurdle,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, 9 February 2001.

21. Rebecca Ferrar, “House Gets Lottery Bill Rolling,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, 9 February 2001.

22. Seanna Adcox, “Lottery a High-Stakes Numbers Game,” Rock Hill Herald, 30 July 2000.

23. Rebecca Ferrar, “Proponents of State Lottery Form Coalition to Organize Campaign for Passage,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, 16 February 2001.

24. Bobbitt, Randy, The Lottery Wars: Case Studies in Bible Belt Politics, 1986–2005 (Lanham, Md., 2007), 153.Google Scholar

25. For a fuller discussion of Alabama’s rejection of a lottery, see Nelson and Mason, How the South Joined the Gambling Nation, chap. 4.

26. Rebecca Ferrar, “Lottery Foes Hope to Ride on Coattails of Hilleary,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, 13 April 2002; Larry Daughtrey, “As Bad as a Lottery May Be, Campaign Against It Is Out of Control,” Nashville Tennessean, 21 April 2002.

27. Bobbitt, The Lottery Wars, 159.

28. Duren Cheek, “Bills for Gambling Events in Limbo,” Nashville Tennessean, 24 February 2003.

29. Charles T. Clotfelter et al., “State Lotteries at the Turn of the Century,” report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, 23 August 1999. Available at http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/reports/lotfinal.pdf. On Georgia, see Joseph McCracy et al., The Georgia Lottery: Participation, Revenue Generation, and Benefit Distribution (Athens, Ga., 2001); and David Firestone, “Free-Tuition Program Transforms a University,” New York Times, 4 February 2001.

30. Peter J. Boyer, “Gone with the Surge,” New Yorker, 26 September 2005), 76–86.

31. Benjamin Schwarz and Christina Schwarz, “Mississippi Monte Carlo,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1996, 67–82.

32. Shepherd III, Thomas B. and Netz, Cheryn L., “Mississippi, ” in International Casino Law, 3rd ed., ed. Cabot, Anthony N. et al. . (Reno, 1999), 72–91.Google Scholar

33. They were right: Louisiana did legalize casino gambling the following year.

34. Shepherd III and Netz, “Mississippi.”

35. Interview with Paul Jones, 5 November 1999.

36. On the allure of the riverboat gambler, see Burnham, Bad Habits, 149, 153, 163.

37. Nash, Jere and Taggart, Andy, Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976–2006 (Jackson, Miss., 2006), 217.Google Scholar

38. Rep. Bill Jones, quoted in ibid., 215.

39. Ronald Smothers, “Riverboat Gambling Gets a Chance in Mississippi,” New York Times, 4 December 1990.

40. John Branston, “Against All Odds,” Memphis, September 1997, 34.

41. Terry R. Cassreino, “Fluke Ignites Phenomenon,” Biloxi Sun Herald, 19 March 2000.

42. “Commercially advantageous” meant as close as possible to Memphis.

43. Cassreino, “Fluke Ignites Phenomenon.”

44. Interview with Ray Mabus, 5 November 1999.

45. Branston, “Against All Odds,” 34.

46. Paul Barton, “Geography May Doom Mississippi Lottery Law,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 10 January 1993.

47. Ironically, the main effect of the amendment to the state constitution that removed the ban on lottery legislation was to guarantee the constitutionality of casino gambling in Mississippi. Some state supreme courts have classified the slot machines on which casinos rely for most of their profits as lotteries because, like a lottery, a slot machine is a form of gambling that depends entirely on chance. In a 1990 case involving charitable bingo, the Mississippi Supreme Court had relied on a much narrower and potentially more casino-friendly definition of lottery, but if it changed its mind the state’s burgeoning casino industry would have been smothered in its cradle. When the lottery amendment was enacted, however, the constitutional basis of the Gaming Control Act and the casino industry that the act unleashed was secured.

48. Interview with Paul Jones, 5 November 1999.

49. Voters in Warren County, which is located close both to Jackson, Mississippi’s largest city, and Interstate 20, reversed a negative vote on casino legalization when neighboring Issaquena and Claiborne counties voted yes. Vicksburg, the county seat, soon attracted four casinos.

50. American Gaming Association, State of the States 2012.

51. Interview with Gary Burhop, vice president, Harrah’s Entertainment, 25 March 1999.

52. Dave Palermo, “Casinos Ask Santa for Favorable Legislation,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, 24 December 2000.

53. Lisa Monti, “Anti-Gambling Group Wants Vote to Go Statewide,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, 5 July 1998.

54. Dave Palermo, “Official: Ban Would Chill Wall Street,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, 5 August 1998.

55. Terry R. Cassreino, “Fordice Opposes Gambling Ban,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, 23 July 1998.

56. Terry R. Cassreino, “Casino Education Bill Falls,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, 14 January 1999.

57. Oliver Staley, “Casino-Business Classes Urged,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 12 April 2004.

58. Oliver Staley, “Gulf Casinos in Eye of Storm Recovery,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 28 September 2005; and Emily Wagster Pettus, “Barbour Woos Conservative Lawmakers over Onshore Casinos,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, 26 September 2005.

59. Oliver Staley, “Casinos on Hold,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, 29 September 2005.

60. Clotfelter, Charles T. and Cook, Philip J., Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), chap. 8.Google Scholar

61. Calculated from data in Owens, Erik C., “Civic Values and ‘Education Lotteries’: The Irony of Funding Public Education with Lottery Revenues, ” in Gambling, ed. Wolfe, and Owens, , 322–42.Google Scholar

62. Pierce, Patrick A. and Miller, Donald E., “Variations in the Diffusion of State Lottery Adoptions: How Revenue Dedication Changes Morality Politics, ” in Public Clash of Private Values, ed. Mooney, , 160–69.Google Scholar

63. Clotfelter, Charles T. and Cook, Philip J., “The Importance of a Good Cause: Ends and Means in State Lotteries, ” in Gambling, ed. Wolfe, and Owens, , 11–38.Google Scholar

64. See, for example, Pew Research Center, “Gambling.”

65. Calculated from data in Clotfelter and Cook, “The Importance of a Good Cause,” 11–38; and American Gaming Association, State of the States 2010: The AGA Survey of Casino Entertainment (available at http://www.americangaming.org/assets/files/State_of_the_States_2010_FINAL.pdf). See also Mason, John Lyman and Nelson, Michael, Governing Gambling: Politics and Policy in State, Tribe, and Nation (Washington, D.C., 2001), chap. 2.Google Scholar

66. Mason and Nelson, Governing Gambling, chap. 3, and American Gaming Association, State of the States 2012. See also Dombrink, John and Thompson, William N., The Last Resort: Success and Failure in Campaigns for Casinos (Reno, 1990)Google Scholar. Interestingly, when New Jersey governor Chris Christie vetoed an intrastate online casino bill in March 2011 because it did not provide for a public referendum, legislators abandoned the measure in the face of polls showing that two-thirds of voters opposed. Lisa Fleisher and Alexandra Berzon, “Internet Gambling Vetoed in New Jersey,” Wall Street Journal, 4 March 2011.

67. Heider-Markel and Meier, “The Politics of Gay and Lesbian Rights.”