Casinos are striving for place in mainstream

A photo of a man jogging along the picturesque pathway in Kansas City's Richard L. Berkley Riverfront Park is featured prominently in the American Gaming Association's first Survey of Casino Entertainment, released Tuesday at the World Gaming Congress in Las Vegas.

That might seem like an odd image to associate with gambling, but it bolsters the industry's argument that casino taxes make such public improvements possible.

The survey found that the average casino gambler is most likely a white-collar worker who has attended college and makes better-than-average money.

It also reinforces the industry's conclusion that the gambling industry has become just another part of life in many states, where it provided 325,000 casino jobs and paid more than $2.5 billion in state and local taxes last year.

More than 23,000 gaming professionals and others are in Las Vegas this week for the industry's largest annual trade show, sponsored in part by the association, which is the industry's trade group and national lobbying arm.

In an interview Tuesday, association President and Chief Executive Frank J. Fahrenkopf said the survey of 54,000 U.S. households also showed that "the American public wants legalized gambling."

"It has become part of the mainstream culture," he said. "We've become part of the community."

The survey also found overwhelming public support -- more than 80 percent -- for the notion that casinos and other gambling enterprises must take an active role in discouraging compulsive gamblers.

The industry survey, however, did not examine deeply the increasingly studied question of why people gamble.

Findings from another recent national study, analyzed in the current issue of Public Perspective magazine, suggest that fewer Americans are gambling for fun in the 1990s and that in the last 20 years substantially more of them are engaging in wagering simply because they hope to win money.

The association's survey, conducted by national polling firms, found that U.S. casino customers':

--Median household income is $46,000, compared with the national average of $39,000.

--Education level includes at least some college for 54 percent, compared with the national average of 49 percent.

--Employment is 45 percent white-collar, 27 percent blue-collar and 13 percent retirees, which roughly approximates the national breakdown. In 1998, someone from 29 percent of all U.S. households visited a casino, and on average Americans visit a casino once every two months.

The study also found widespread acceptance of casino gambling as adult entertainment, with only 25 percent of Americans agreeing with the statement that "casino gambling is morally wrong."

Eighty-two percent agreed with the statement that "casino gambling can be a fun night out."

But an analysis of other surveys, including two commissioned by Congress in 1975 and last year, suggests that gambling is emerging as a second vocation for some and as a get-rich-quick avocation for others.

The August-September issue of Public Perspective examined those congressional studies and found that between 1975 and 1998 the percentage of people who said they gambled to win money increased from 44 percent to 66 percent, and the number who said they gambled for the excitement or challenge of it dropped from 70 percent to 49 percent.

"I find that hard to believe," said Fahrenkopf, who had not seen the analysis. "That is just not supported by anything that I have ever seen."

Fahrenkopf also took issue with the methods of the 1998 congressional study, complaining that telephone survey findings were mixed with random interviews of gamblers at U.S. casinos to reach many of the conclusions.

At the trade show this week, scores of the latest slot machines and other player attractions are on display and for sale alongside such mundane, back-of-the-house technology as cash- and coin-counting machines and database software for casino managers.

Celebrities on hand range from retired Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula, who delivered Tuesday's inspirational opening address on winning, to actress Barbara Eden and NASCAR superstar driver Richard Petty, whose images grace this year's crop of new slot machines from International Game Technology, the worldwide industry's dominant game maker.

Last year the stars of the show were Elvis Presley (or at least his image) and Monopoly slots, now being played in many casinos.

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