Aug. 19--SIN TAX LOOMS FOR STATE'S CASINOS: DeSoto County School Board member Darrell Hopper is proposing a 2 percent increase in Mississippi's 12 percent tax on casino revenues to help fund the Legislature's $352 million pay package for teachers. 

That's an appetizing proposition, given that gambling in the state is a $2.65 billion industry. An extra 2 percent increase would net a cool $50 million a year on top of the $320 million that casinos already kicked into state and local coffers. 

The timing, however, is bad, with rough economic times looming just offshore for casinos. 

Even two years ago, before the economy got squirrelly, a University of Southern Mississippi report estimated that an increase in the tax rate could force up to nine struggling casinos out of business. Along with them would go millions of dollars in tax revenue from an already tapped-out state budget, not to mention throwing thousands of casino employees out of work. 

Beyond the gambling industry, a hike in casino taxes now would send a bad message to industries that might follow Nissan to the Magnolia State. Those tempted to open up shop here would see a fine example of how the state cannibalized its leading employer and tax producer when the chips were down. 

Not by coincidence, the places where casinos flourish also are places where taxes are low. In Nevada, the top market, casinos pay 6.25 percent. No. 2 New Jersey has an 8 percent levy, and third-ranked Mississippi follows with 12 percent. 

Most states charge between 18 percent and 20 percent, and Illinois charges a whopping 35 percent. Louisiana slashed its 18.5 percent rate earlier this year to bail out struggling Harrah's in New Orleans, when the Canal Street boondoggle was at risk of going under. 

GIVE AND TAKE: Gambling opponents say that the massive taxes casinos pay in is fool's gold. When the bills are added up at the end of the day, casinos take far more than they give, they say. 

Examples to prove and disprove that, however, are riddled with limitation and holes. Clouding it further, both sides pick examples strategically and cook the numbers. 

Last month, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., the gambling industry's public enemy No. 1, delivered an impassioned speech to Congress saying that though gambling is a $50 billion industry in the United States, it creates a $6 billion cost to government. 

He called on President Bush to step in, saying the "silence is deafening." 

Wolf talked about the "broken bodies" of compulsive gamblers and the toll casinos take on communities. Supporters of the industry, though, often respond to that by asking opponents to name one community that has ever asked the industry to leave town. 

Among the bleak picture painted by opponents is crime -- people stealing to stay in the game or beating their spouse after a night of cards. 

The National Gambling Impact Study, often quoted by Wolf and other opponents, said there is no conclusive evidence, only sad anecdotes, to show gambling drives up crime rates in communities. 

"Taken as a whole, literature shows that communities that have casinos are just as safe as communities that do not have casinos," the report concluded. 

According to the 2000 FBI Uniform Crime Statistics report, Las Vegas has roughly the same crime index as Nashville, Tenn., which has no casinos. Does country music, then, drive otherwise honest citizens to break the law? 

On the Coast, crime has not increased significantly. In fact, some say that corporate-run casinos drove up property prices and drove out seedy waterfront bars and strip joints. 

As for treating addictions, the state puts in about $100,000 a year for the Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling, and the gambling industry matches that, beyond the taxes casinos pay. 

COAST REVENUE: The 12 Coast casinos paid $19.1 million in property taxes last year and, collectively, they pay $5 million annually to the state to lease the water where their barges are docked. They also boost property values around them and, therefore, taxes, bringing in millions more. 

Since casinos opened in 1992, Coast tourism has jumped from 1.5 million visitors annually to more than 19 million last year. Hotel rooms on the Coast have tripled to more than 17,000, and in the past 12 months alone, the 3 percent lodging tax provided Harrison County almost $3.3 million. 

Coast casinos' $350 million payroll generates millions in income taxes and lightens unemployment rolls, as well. There also were taxes on the $100 million in construction in 2000, a slow year as building goes, especially compared to 1999 when the $750 million Beau Rivage opened in Biloxi. 

Grand Casinos Vice President Duncan McKenzie, president of the Gulf Coast Gaming Association, pointed out recently that on top of all their taxes, casinos pay $150 per slot machine to municipalities annually. At 17,500 slot machines on the Coast, that's an additional $2.6 million. 

The issue, however, continues to have more to do with morality than crime or economics. If a new tax hits casinos, it can be called a "sin tax," the same name given to levies heaped on cigarettes and alcohol. 

Anti-gambling forces, led by tax-exempt churches, will always hold the moral high ground in that debate, where one side waves the Bible and the other a pair of dice. 

Joey Bunch can be reached at 896-2367 or at [email protected] 

-----To see more of The Sun Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sunherald.com/ 

(c) 2001, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HET,,