Neighbors Tell Gov. Not to Let a State Fair Racino Ride
By Ike Eastvold
Fair Heights Neighborhood Association
Paul Blanchard, part owner of the Downs at Albuquerque, appeared at the Dec. 6 meeting of the Governor's State Fair Task Force proposing construction of a $50 million dollar urban casino on the fairgrounds.
The new "racino"— Blanchard's preferred location is at the corner of Louisiana and Central— would more than double the number of video gambling machines to 750. This would put the new casino on par with casinos operating on the Indian reservations.
Many Fair Heights neighborhood residents remember how in 1995-97 we joined with all the other neighborhood associations bordering the fairgrounds to persuade the Legislature not to approve a foothold for casino gambling at the Albuquerque Downs.
As neighborhoods of primarily low- and moderate-income families and retirees on fixed incomes, we were especially concerned about addictive gambling and its inevitable partners, crime and family dysfunction. Some studies of compulsive gamblers have found that up to 66 percent admitted to some kinds of crime to get money for gambling.
We were concerned how this would affect families in terms of increased domestic violence, drunkenness, DWIs, incarcerations, bankruptcies, neglect of the home, and less money going into children's education and well-being.
In 1997, the Legislature approved video gambling at the Downs and other venues around the State. Despite our testimony, legislators didn't even include a requirement that baseline socio-economic data be gathered and monitored over the years to learn what was happening to surrounding communities.
The study released last month by the Governor's Task Force on Gambling indicated that up to 108,000 New Mexicans had a compulsive gambling problem. The study found that just one phone service that counsels problem gamblers received about 5,500 phone calls last year, 10 percent of which were called "serious crisis calls," usually meaning suicidal. The report also stated that the average debt of the serious problem gamblers who called in was about $20,000.
The warnings in 1996 to the Legislature from neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds were prophetic. It was irresponsible of the state to wait nearly 10 years to even begin to measure the impacts of their actions. The human cost of this irresponsibility is incalculable.
The fairgrounds, as state property, is exempt from the usual planning and zoning requirements we are used to here in the city. There is not even a requirement that neighborhood associations be notified of changes on the fairgrounds that will impact us. Nor are there any required public hearings, nor any judicial relief for residents or businesses adversely affected.
The fairgrounds is a black hole in not only our accustomed planning and zoning framework, but also in the usual protections and rights which we take for granted in a democratic society.
Compounding these severe problems is that the gambling industry has become the King Kong of lobbying in Santa Fe (and Washington, D.C.). Most of the members of the Legislature, both Republican and Democrat, have received sizable contributions from gambling interests, as has the governor.
As a potential candidate for national office, contributions from gambling interests, no matter how large, should not affect his decisions on gambling. We call upon him to just say "no" to a racino on the fairgrounds. Enough is enough.
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