There is concern in Rhode Island that Massachusetts, the source of many customers at Rhode Island's racinos, will legalize slot machines at its own racetracks, and within an hour's drive of Providence, the large American Indian-owned casinos in Connecticut are expanding.

"We're in a Catch-22 situation, with out third largest revenue source being surrounded by these other gambling facilities," said Joseph A. Montalbano, the president of the Rhode Island state Senate.

South Dakota first legalized gambling for a limited purpose — allowing casinos in the decaying frontier town of Deadwood to try to preserve it.

But South Dakota now gets $112.8 million a year from gambling, most of it from video slot machines in bars all over the state. Gambling accounts for 13.2 percent of South Dakota's revenue.

In 2000, worried about an increase in divorces, crime and suicide among problem gamblers, David Knudson, a Republican state senator from Sioux Falls, supported a ballot issue to repeal the law legalizing the state lottery video slot machines. But many legislators argued the state would have to come up with alternative sources of money, Knudson said, and the measure was defeated.

Knudson noted that gambling opponents often cite the danger of addiction for individual gamblers, but "the biggest addict turns out to be the state government that becomes dependent on it."