The big gamble: Utahns support gaming in both word and deed

Casinos, race tracks and lotteries sing a seductive siren song all along Utah's borders, seeking to lure its residents — and their money — out of their no-legalized-gambling preserve.

Local bingo and poker clubs go a step further, quietly offering casino-style wagering inside Utah — despite the state's supposed ban on all gambling. Such clubs are aided by perceived legal loopholes and lack of enforcement. So is the Internet gambling that Utahns find easily at home on their computers, also technically against state law but a ban essentially not enforced.

Perhaps never has so much gambling been so available in or near a place that supposedly outlaws it.

In fact, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll by Dan Jones and Associates finds that 75 percent of Utahns say they have gambled (not counting office pools or friendly wagers) in their lifetimes — and 45 percent of those gamblers have wagered on commercial gaming within the past year.

Perhaps even more interesting, the poll finds that a majority of Utahns see gambling as an acceptable activity — at least for others, if not themselves. The poll shows 4 percent say gambling is a harmless form of entertainment; 38 percent say it is an acceptable form of entertainment that could present danger if not monitored closely; 11 percent said it is "acceptable for others but not for me"; and a minority of 43 percent said it is an unacceptable activity because of potential harms.

That may be startling because President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of the Utah-headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke at length against gambling at its last general conference in April. "It becomes addictive. In so many cases it leads to other destructive habits and practices," he said. Utah politicians also have overwhelming opposed gambling through the years.

The Deseret Morning News today begins a five-day series looking at gambling's allure and impacts in Utah — where it exists, how much Utahns spend on it, who benefits and the social costs for problem gamblers.

Today we focus on the legal temptations Utahns find along their borders.

Luring Utahns pays well. Wasatch Front residents spend an estimated quarter-billion dollars a year gambling in border states. The casino industry figures that one of every four Utah adults gambled in a casino last year. Most Utahns can find forms of gaming legally within a two-hour drive, often literally inches over the state line. For example:

• Morning News research reveals that the top six Idaho lottery sales sites are on the Utah border — and they sell up to 27 times as many tickets as the average Idaho lottery site.